Darkness and Liberty
by PairingMatters
Summary: This story happens during Harry's fifth year, a week after the first quidditch match. James and Lily had enough of seeing Harry suffer, they appeared to him, and offered him a way of escape. Liberal Harry and Hermione. Dark Wizarding Britain. AU. - Inspired by the story 'Harry's had Enough' by sprinter1988.
1. Chapter 1

**Darkness and Liberty**

This story takes place in Harry's fifth year, a week after the first Quidditch match.

Note: Taking a glance of the summary at the top, you may think that this story is about a Dark Wizarding Britain. While this is true, Harry and Hermione will flee from Britain to USA and attend another Wizarding school, starting their fifth year magical education over again, and continue until they finish their seventh year, in this story.

In this story, James and Lily will appear to Harry from beyond death as ghosts using Metaphysical Magic (a magic that is beyond what Wizards know), and they will help Harry get out of the prejudiced, bigoted Wizarding Britain.

Chapter 1

**A Call For Departure**

Disclaimer: Everything in Harry Potter universe belongs to J.K. Rowling. I got nothing out of this except for enjoyment.

Harry was lying on his bed in his dormitory, his face appeared in rage. As he glanced down at the scars on the back of his hand, he felt abhorred.

He could no longer call Hogwarts his home. The events that had happened in Hogwarts from the start of his fifth year until now had made him feel that every day appears like a year in length, as if he had to suffer from time to time.

Thinking back of the previous years when he was in Hogwarts, he had done so many things, some of which had prevented or delayed Voldemort's return to power. First year, he saved the Philosopher's Stone from Voldemort. Second year, he killed a basilisk with the Sword of Gryffindor, and destroyed Tom Riddle's Diary with the basilisk fang, saving Ginny. Third year, he managed to drive away a horde of Dementors with a Patronus Charm, and fourth year, Voldemort's back to power, and he saw him coming back, but he had managed to escape from him.

He had warned the Minister of Magic about Voldemort's return, and mentioned the names of the Death Eaters he had seen, but the Minister didn't take it seriously, and he had disagreed with Dumbledore's suggestion of the steps that should be taken.

After that, he heard from Ron that Dumbledore wanted him to go back to the Dursleys, his magic hating relatives, and Ron told him that her mother had said that Dumbledore had his reasons.

What had happened to him during the summer holiday after his fourth year at Hogwarts did not make him feel better, he had been stuck there for more than one month. Although he stayed outside and relaxed, but then he met two Dementors, and he was forced to produce a Patronus to drive them away. After that, he had received a letter to attend a hearing in the Ministry of Magic to determine whether he was going to be expelled or not.

And then he was told to not leave the Dursleys.

He had no idea why Dumbledore wanted him to stay with his relatives, didn't he know that the Dursleys hated him?

Right after he had been escorted to Number Twelve, Grimmauld Place, he heard from Ron and Hermione about what the Daily Prophet had said about him, which was not pleasant to hear.

Fortunately, he had been cleared of all charges, which was a relief, since it meant that he could still attend Hogwarts.

Nevertheless, as soon as Umbridge had been selected as Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, she had refused to teach the students real defensive spells, and claimed that the former Defense Against the Dark Arts teachers had taught spells that were lethal, and inappropriate to their age group.

Afterwards, he had received several weeks of detentions where he was forced to labour over the blood quills painfully engraved 'I must not tell lies', and he had missed a decent number of quidditch practices. Wasn't Dumbledore even aware of what Umbridge was doing to him?

According to what Sirius had told him, the reason that Umbridge didn't want to teach the students real Defense Against the Dark Arts was because Fudge thought that Dumbledore wanted to form his own private army and take over the Ministry of Magic.

Hermione had came up with the idea of practicing the Defense Against the Dark Arts themselves, and had arranged a meeting in the Hogs Head, asking him to teach Defense Against the Dark Arts. Unfortunately, two days later, an Educational Decree was brought into the school, banning the activities of three or more students until they obtained permission from Umbridge, which had included their organisation, as well as quidditch, and Umbridge had refused to allow Gryffindors to reform their quidditch team.

And now, he had just finished his week of detention with Professor McGonagall, because of what he had done to Draco Malfoy at the end of a quidditch match, and Umbridge had banned him from playing quidditch ever again.

The DA was the only thing left for him, and it was formed undercover to teach students defensive spells. While it may have helped some students to learn some defensive spells, there was still a probability for it to be discovered, and Harry knew what would happen if anyone discovers the DA and report it to Umbridge.

In spite of all these things, the Ministry was still sprouting their advertisement about Voldemort's return, and he couldn't think of a single way to get through to them, or anyone else, about how close the real danger the dark wizard represented really was. How was he supposed to convince them? How was he supposed to fight when he couldn't escape the almost constant bouts of detentions here?

Harry knew that the fact that the Ministry and the Wizarding public had chosen to disregard the statement that Voldemort had returned, and believing the snide remarks made about him in the Daily Prophet, would suit Voldemort just fine, and there was every chance for Voldemort to launch an attack in the Wizarding world, and possibly taking over the Ministry.

He had no idea how much more Educational Decrees were going to be planted in Hogwarts, but he was certain that none of them would do him any good.

Consequently, he felt that he was going to collapse real soon.

He felt that now is the time to run away from Hogwarts, just as he had felt in his fourth year, during the time that he didn't have a clue of how to get past the dragon in the first task of the Tri-Wizard Tournament, and the only thing that held him back at Hogwarts was that he had help, thanks to Barty Crouch Junior, who had given him advice of how to get past the dragon.

This time, on the contrary, while he was being left at the mercy of Umbridge, labouring over blood quills, he had no help at all, not from any staff members of Hogwarts, including Dumbledore himself, they were all sitting in their office pretending that nothing had happened. Professor McGonagall simply told him to shut his mouth and keep his temper under control.

Suddenly, two faces appeared.

It was James and Lily.

"Harry," said Lily.

Harry felt both terrified and excited, he missed his parents so much, and their sudden appearance shocked him. He hoped that it was not one of Voldemort's tricks.

"Mum," Harry said.

"I have already seen what you have gone through, Harry," said Lily. "Right now, I am going to take you out of Hogwarts, since it is more like a hell for you than a home."

Harry understood what his mother was talking about, she's going to take him away from Hogwarts, so he would no longer be stuck inside the power hungry, prejudiced, and bigoted world. He had been feeling exactly the same way as Lily had said, yes, Hogwarts was like hell to him than a home, for now, at least, but then he will have to go back to the Dursleys, which won't be any better.

"How?" he asked.

"I am going to take you out now, but I am also going to let someone else go with you," said Lily. "The way that I am going to use to take you out of Hogwarts is completely undetectable by anyone else in Hogwarts."

"Who is going to go with me?" asked Harry.

"Hermione Granger," said Lily.

"Why her?" asked Harry. "What about Ron?"

"I'll get to Ron in a minute," replied Lily simply.

"Besides, should Voldemort take over the Wizarding world after you left, Muggleborns will no doubt be the first to be targeted," said James. "Do you understand what I mean?"

Harry nodded, he understood what James meant, although he didn't like it.

"Then where are we going to go?" asked Harry.

"We won't be taking you back to your relatives," replied Lily, as if she could read Harry's mind. "I know they are horrible, I know they have abused you, and I can't wait to help you to get them back for what they did. Now, don't try and stop me, because we got to get this done."

Harry felt relieved.

"We have already cleared this up with Hermione's parents, that you and Hermione will be going to USA, since we know that it is too dangerous to stay in Britain," said James. "They have already agreed."

"And don't think you will be leaving the Wizarding world, you and Hermione will be continuing your Wizarding education in a school called Strectoll Wizarding Academy," said Lily.

"Are we going to leave this country immediately?" he asked.

"Not immediately," said James, "but soon."

"Dumbledore said that he wants me to go back to the Dursleys at the end of last school year," said Harry.

"Now, he had his reasons, and I can tell you that, he placed some wards at Number Four, Privet Drive, to protect you from Voldemort while you are staying with them," said Lily. "He want to use you as a weapon against Voldemort. Do you want to know why he didn't bother to check on your wellbeing all those years when you were being abused? He raised you to die, so he had to make sure that you have nothing to live for, or hope for."

Harry led out a heavy sigh, and he shook his head, he felt disgusted, Dumbledore had never told him why he wanted to place him there, and insisted him to go back, without caring about how much pain he had gone through.

"A prophecy was made before your birth," James said. "It stated that you are able to defy Voldemort, and either you have to kill Voldemort, or die trying."

"Snape heard part of the prophecy and told Voldemort about it," said Lily.

"So the reason that Voldemort wanted to kill me when I was a baby was that he believes that he would be invincible after he killed me?" asked Harry.

"Yes," said James. "By the way, that old coot, Dumbledore, has a lot to answer for, and the Weasleys are in his pockets. If you distance yourself from the Weasleys, it will make Dumbledore harder to reach you."

Harry remembered that he asked Dumbledore about why Voldemort wanted to kill him, and Dumbledore didn't answer him.

"Dumbledore didn't really care about you, instead, he used you to do his dirty work for him," said Lily.

"Really?" asked Harry.

"In your first year at Hogwarts, Dumbledore announced that the third floor corridor was out of bounds to everyone who does not want to suffer a painful death, didn't he?" asked James.

"He did, and it was because of the Philiosopher's stone," Harry said.

"And why did he place the stone in Hogwarts?" asked Lily. "Why didn't he hide the Philiosopher's stone in a location other than Hogwarts and use the secret keeper spell, making himself the secret keeper? Wouldn't the stone be equally safe if he did that?"

Harry didn't speak, instead, he sighed.

"And think about your second year, Harry," said Lily. "As soon as Colin Creevey was petrified, did Dumbledore set up any security measure to keep the rest of the Muggleborns safe? Did he warn the staff members, or make any announcements to the rest of the students, asking them to watch out for themselves?"

"No, he didn't," replied Harry. "Security measures were taken after Hermione and Penelope were attacked."

He felt that what his parents had told him were right, back in his second year, Dumbledore had failed to protect the Muggleborns from being attacked, as a result he was suspended from Hogwarts by the school governors.

Hogwarts, the place that Harry felt as if he was at home, was not really home at all. Every year he arrives in Hogwarts, there had been at least one unpleasant event, and this year was by far the worst, even worse than his fourth year. Being forced to go back to the Dursleys did not make him feel better, right after he had his battle with Voldemort towards the end of his fourth year, and now, even Hogwarts was not a good place for him to stay.

He felt sickened about Dumbledore, not only he had been keeping things from him, at this moment he ignored him, and left him to the mercy of Umbridge, the Daily Prophet and the Ministry.

Nevertheless, it was the prophecy that he need to worry about, but from his experience of defying Voldemort, he knew that he does not have any skill to defeat him, since it was all because of luck that he was able to defy Voldemort.

"Do I have to kill Voldemort?" he asked, trembling.

"According to the prophecy, yes, but not if you don't want to," said Lily. "I suggest you leave Voldemort be, since the Ministry denied the fact that he's back, plus that they called you a liar, don't worry about them, leave them to face the consequences themselves."

"And what is the point of staying somewhere you know that someone is after you?" asked James. "The Ministry had been trying to discredit you or silence you, in order to prevent you from spreading the word that Voldemort had returned. The Dementors that attacked you and your cousin during the summer after your fourth year were ordered by none other than Dolores Umbridge, and Cornelius Fudge doesn't know about that."

Harry felt disgusted, he had nearly been expelled from Hogwarts for using magic to fight the Dementors, luckily Dumbledore was able to get him out from being expelled. However, if Dumbledore had chosen to leave him alone when he really needed him, there's no reason to not get away from Hogwarts. Now he half wished that he had been subjected to the Dementor's kiss, and everything would be over, even if that meant that he would be worse than dead. Dolores Umbridge, who had tortured him with blood quills, had also played a part in trying to get him expelled from Hogwarts by sending the Dementors to go after him.

If the Ministry had been trying to prevent him from spreading the word that Voldemort had returned, then he might as well stop spreading it, which would make it easier for Voldemort to take over the Wizarding Britain.

"Where are you going to take us?" he asked.

"We will take you to the Grangers residence tomorrow," replied Lily.

Harry considered for a moment, then another question occurred to him.

"Wouldn't anyone be looking for me if I left?" he asked.

"You don't have to worry about this, Harry," James said. "We will make sure that whoever is looking for you, regardless of whether they are Dumbledore or the member of the Order of the Phoenix, or Voldemort or Death Eaters, they would never reach you, since we are protecting you using enchantments that prevents every single method of transportation, including portkeys, plus that it protects itself from every single type of spell, and thus no one would break through it no matter how hard they try."

Harry nodded.

/Scene Break/

On the following morning, Harry and Hermione found themselves appearing in the Grangers' residence. James and Lily had summoned all of their possessions to the Grangers house in a split second.

"I know you two will be here," said a voice.

Harry and Hermione turned and saw Dan Granger stood behind them.

"Nice to meet you, Harry, my name is Dan Granger."

He paused for a moment.

"I don't know what has really happened to the Wizarding World," he said. "Harry, according to what your parents told us, the Wizarding world in this country is no longer safe anymore."

Harry nodded.

"They have made the request for us to get you two to the USA, and attending a Wizarding school known as Strectoll Wizarding Academy," Dan said. "I happen to agree, since I think it would be better for you both to remain in the Wizarding world."

Before either Harry or Hermione could say another word, a woman entered.

"This is my wife, Emma Granger," Dan said.

"Nice to meet you," said Harry.

After breakfast, Dan and Emma asked Harry if he had a passport.

"No, I don't have one," Harry said.

"We will get you one," said Dan.

/Scene Break/

As Ron woke up, he saw that Harry's bed was empty, so he assumed that Harry was already in the common room.

He made his way to the common room, and saw a few students there, but he didn't see Harry or Hermione.

_Maybe they are already at the breakfast table. _Ron thought.

As soon as he walked down to the Great Hall for breakfast, Harry and Hermione were still nowhere to be seen, this caused him to become worried as he did not know where they had gone.

For the first time, he was lonely.

Nevertheless, it was not only Ron who noticed this, Fred, George and Ginny also noticed it.

As soon as Ron finished his breakfast and went to class, he waited, hoping that Harry and Hermione would appear, but they didn't turn up.

Ron started to get worried, so he started to ask people about Harry and Hermione's whereabouts during break time.

"Where are Harry and Hermione?" he asked Seamus.

"Dunno, I didn't see them during meal times," Seamus replied.

"Do you think we should tell someone about it?" Ron asked.

"Why do you think you should tell anyone?" asked Seamus.

"If Harry and Hermione are indeed no longer in Hogwarts, I wonder if the Daily Prophet is going to keep quiet about their departure from this school or not," said Ron. "On the other hand, they are my friends, so I don't think I should just ignore them."

"If Harry and Hermione have indeed departed from Hogwarts, maybe the news about their disappearance will be kept quiet, since the Ministry think that Harry is a liar," said Seamus.

The professors realised that Harry and Hermione are not there when they were teaching the fifth years, including Hagrid. Except for Umbridge and Snape, every staff members were worried.

Professor McGonagall, in particular, was troubled by Harry and Hermione's departure, since they both belonged to her house.

She decided to have a word with Dumbledore.

/Scene Break/

Dumbledore was sitting inside his office, sipping his tea, and then there was a knock on the door.

"Enter," he said.

The door opened, and Professor McGonagall appeared.

"To what do I owe this pleasure, Minerva?" asked Dumbledore.

"Do you have any idea where Harry and Hermione are?" asked Professor McGonagall.

"Aren't they in your class right now?" asked Dumbledore.

"I didn't see them in my class," said Professor McGonagall. "They were also not at their house table this morning during breakfast."

Dumbledore did, in fact, recognise that Harry and Hermione were no longer sitting at the Gryffindor house table during breakfast, but he didn't think that they had really gone from Hogwarts, instead, he assumed that they might have overslept, so he didn't think about searching for them. Nevertheless, the fact that Harry and Hermione didn't appear in class had caused him to wonder where they are.

"I think I will have the staff members to conduct a search in this whole school for them," he said. "They might be hiding somewhere."

Then he pulled out his wand, and sent a few Patronuses, alerting all the staff to check everywhere in the school.

After half an hour, several Patronuses returned to Dumbledore's office.

_Potter and Granger were not found anywhere in Hogwarts._

This reply worried him.

He didn't really mind if Hermione had chosen to leave Hogwarts, but Harry was his primary concern.

_What will the Daily Prophet say about this? _He asked himself silently. _Will they keep it quiet or will they spread the news?_

Dumbledore knew that he did not say anything to Harry, or even looked at him since the Hogwarts term started, but he had his reasons to not do it. He did not understand why Harry, the only savior of the Wizarding world, wants to leave Hogwarts when Voldemort is active.

While it may be true that Harry had enough of Hogwarts because of the state that the school is in, he knew that Harry was the only one who would be capable of defeating Voldemort, that either Voldemort had to kill him, or vice versa, except for the fact that Harry didn't know about the prophecy yet, and if Harry chose to leave at this time, Voldemort would take over the Wizarding world, and if Voldemort takes over the Wizarding world, he would end up on killing anyone he wishes, and then the Wizarding world in Britain would be the most dangerous country to live in.

He felt that if Voldemort choose to invade the Muggle world as well, no Muggles would stand a chance against him and the Death Eaters.

He panted as he walked out of his office, and made his way to the Gryffindor common room, muttered the password, entered through the portrait hole, and went to the Boys' dormitory, since he felt that Harry may have left a letter before he left Hogwarts.

He thoroughly searched the entire dormitory, only that he didn't find any letter.

He sighed, and he crept into the girls dormitory, and searched the entire room, to see if Hermione had left any letter before she had left Hogwarts, but he still didn't find any letter.

He assumed that Harry and Hermione had departed right under his nose, without leaving a letter. He had to act fast, to try and locate Harry since he needed him.

He went and fetched Severus Snape, and they returned to his office.

"Do you know that Harry and Hermione are not here anymore, Severus?" asked Dumbledore, as they entered his office and sat down.

Snape stared at Dumbledore in a rather careless expression, and Dumbledore could tell that his hatred towards Harry had not changed.

"And why does their disappearance concern you?" Snape asked. "Potter is arrogant like his father, and Granger is his ally, they are not my concern at all."

Dumbledore frowned, and then he said:

"I am more concerned about where Harry is right now."

"Are you going to order us to search for him?" asked Snape. "Why should I? In fact, I am relieved that Potter is not here anymore."

"Whatever opinion you have about Harry, I shall call the Order to search for him very soon," replied Dumbledore. "If you don't want to be involved in this search, it doesn't matter."

Dumbledore pulled out his wand, and sent several Patronuses, and several minutes later, he received replies saying that the Order is going to go and look for Harry, this caused him to settle down.

He knew that it was not possible to apparate or disapparate within Hogwarts. The only probable way for Harry and Hermione to disappear from this school was letting a house elf apparating them away, since the enchantments inside Hogwarts had prevented apparition of anyone except for house elves.

_Did Harry call a house elf to apparate him and Hermione away?_

He quickly summoned Dobby and Winky.

"I just discovered that Harry Potter and Hermione Granger are not here anymore, I want to ask you, did either of you apparate Harry and Hermione out of this castle?" he asked.

Dobby and Winky both shook their heads in confusion.

Dumbledore felt disappointed with their answers, and he couldn't think of what other ways Harry and Hermione would use to get out of the school without detection, he hope that someone from the Order would arrive back to his office or reply to him soon.

He waited for two hours, only that no one had returned to his office, nor did any Patronuses arrive in his office informing him that Harry had been discovered, so he assumed that they had no news about Harry yet, but he didn't understand what had taken them so long to search for Harry.

/Scene Break/

Tonks arrived at Dumbledore's office during the afternoon.

"Do you have any news about Harry, Tonks?" asked Dumbledore, and he hoped that Tonks would say yes.

"One of the most likely place that he is in would be the Granger's residence," answered Tonks, "but when we tried to get there, we felt that we were being blasted back. We tried to walk there manually, but we still couldn't get through, apparently something was intercepting us from getting in."

"Did you try to use a portkey?" asked Dumbledore.

"Yes," said Tonks, "however, each time we tried to get there using this method, we were being blasted back, it seems to be quite impossible for us to reach there."

Dumbledore shook his head in disbelief, and he fell silent. He was stunned, he didn't understand what had prevented the Order of the Phoenix from entering the Grangers residence even when they had used portkeys. He knew that Muggle residence are usually not warded. He wondered if there had been any restrictions of using portkeys set at the Grangers' residence that had prevented the order from gaining access to that location.

If no method of transportation was possible to reach that place, he assumed that it must have been a Witch or Wizard who had set up the enchantments, but who had set up the enchantments was the question that he couldn't find an answer for.

Putting out the thoughts of why the Order of the Phoenix couldn't get to the Grangers' residence, he decided to think of another plan to find Harry.

A/N: I would like to give thanks the author, BlackIceWitch, for the constructive criticism for this chapter.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

**Immigration**

Disclaimer: Everything in Harry Potter universe belongs to J.K. Rowling. I got nothing out of this except for enjoyment.

A week passed, Harry had obtained his passport and visa, and he was ready to leave with Hermione.

James and Lily had used some healing spells on Harry, to heal the neglect that he had suffered, and all the effects of the pain he had gone through. This made Harry's injuries disappear.

Harry also transferred all of his money into the Wizarding bank of USA, called Wizarding Nation Bank. The Goblins had helped him to open a vault of his own in that very bank.

Dan and Emma had loaned their house to one of their friends called Simon Harris, and they were ready to leave at moments of silence. They had managed to sell their dental practice to several other dentists.

As soon as they got ready, James and Lily appeared.

"Time to go Harry," James said.

"We have already booked the accommodation for you all, it's just that you have to pay for it," said Lily. "Take this portkey, and you will be there. We will summon your possessions to your destination soon."

Harry and Hermione nodded, and they looked at each other for a while. Dan and Emma stood behind them, and they smiled.

Then they grabbed the portkey, and a second later, they found themselves on a pavement.

"Just go forward, and you will see a hotel, named Spedison Hotel," said Lily.

Harry and Hermione excitedly marched forward along with Hermione's parents, until they arrived in the Hotel, then they identified themselves using their passports.

"You all have been booked into room twelve," said the receptionist, handing them the keys. "Just walk along the hallway on your right, and you will find it."

Harry, Hermione, and the Grangers walked along the hallway, and as they glanced on their side, they saw the doors were in creamy white colour.

As soon as they found room twelve, Dan opened the door with the key that the receptionist had given him.

The room was beautiful, it had two single sized beds, and one double sized bed, a table, and a few chairs. The wall was blue, and the window was ahead of them.

Harry and Hermione sat down on the chairs, and they looked at each other.

"I am free now," said Harry.

"Free from the Wizarding world in Britain," said Hermione. "No more prejudices, no more snide remarks about you, and I hope that you are happy now. Honestly, Harry, I don't quite like the current state of Wizarding Britain either."

/Scene Break/

"Harry, it is time to write a letter to Strectoll Wizarding Academy now," said Lily, after Harry and the Grangers had their dinner.

"I'll do that soon," said Harry. "I'll tell Hermione for you."

"We will protect you, and now I need to take something out of you," she said.

"What do you mean?" asked Harry.

"Part of Voldemort's soul is in you, I need to remove it," said Lily.

"No wonder I have been having dreams about Voldemort," said Harry. "Am I right in saying that the reason that Dumbledore raised me to die is because of this part of Voldemort's soul that lives in me?"

Lily nodded.

"I'll remove it," she said.

She pointed her finger at Harry, and then Harry felt something was squeezing out of his scar, though he felt no pain.

And then he saw a little creature, in the form of a small, naked child, had fallen down to the ground.

"This is the part of Voldemort's soul that was in you," said Lily. "You won't be having any more visions about Voldemort from now on, Harry."

"Thank you," said Harry.

"Keep your head down and look after yourself," Lily said. "I want you to have a happy life, get educated, and get married after you finish school. Don't worry about Voldemort and his followers."

And then she took away the little creature that had fallen to the floor.

/Scene Break/

Dumbledore was frustrated when Snape told him that he had not found Harry.

"Why do you think that Potter's disappearance is a serious thing to you?" asked Snape angrily. "Do you have any idea what the Daily Prophet wrote about him? Even the Minister thinks that he is a liar!"

"I am aware of it, I know perfectly well what the Daily Prophet has written about him," said Dumbledore. "But if he has left Britain just because of this, with Voldemort on the loose, I am afraid that Britain may no longer be safe. It appears that Harry has left without me telling him the prophecy, Britain would be endangered over the next few months, if the Daily Prophet had reported about Harry leaving, and Voldemort sees it, I would be surprised if he is not going to think about taking over the Wizarding world."

Snape gazed at Dumbledore for a moment.

"You haven't even told him about the prophecy yet," he said. "Why does it matter that he had left without you telling him the prophecy?"

Dumbledore shook his head.

"There would be no hope for Voldemort to be defeated without him," he said. "Surely you want a peaceful Wizarding world, don't you Severus?"

Snape's expression turned dour, but since Dumbledore had made his point, he knew that it would do no good to start an argument.

"If you do have to locate him, Headmaster," he said quietly, "maybe I can have a look at the Wizarding schools in other countries, other than Durmstrang and Beauxbatons. If I manage to catch up with him, I shall be giving him a dozen detentions for getting away from this school without permission."

Dumbledore smiled.

"You can do that, Severus. Report back to me, and bring him back if you have managed to find him. You don't have to worry about Miss Granger, she can go wherever she likes," he said quietly. "If you don't have anything else to say, you may leave."

Snape nodded, and he left.

A couple minutes after Snape had left, Umbridge entered.

"To what do I owe this pleasure, Dolores?" asked Dumbledore.

"What did you and Severus talk about?" asked Dolores.

Dumbledore looked annoyed, he did not want to tell Umbridge about Voldemort, or else he may end up in Azkaban as soon as Umbridge reported back to the Minister. He had also decided to keep Harry's disappearance quiet in front of her.

"This is between us," replied Dumbledore. "You are not supposed to know, and you don't need to know."

Umbridge felt that it is best to not say anything else.

"Very well, Headmaster," she said.

/Scene Break/

On the following day, Harry received the letter from Strectoll.

_Dear Mr Potter_

_Thank you for your interest in studying at Strectoll Wizarding Academy, to gain acceptance to this school, you will need to sit a test, since you are enrolling in below sixth year._

_We will make the date of your test to take place on the 2nd and 3rd of December, at 8 am. On the 2nd of December you will be sitting Transfiguration, Charms, Herbology, and Potions test, on the 3rd of December you will be sitting History of Magic, and Defense Against the Dark Arts. Your astronomy test will take place at 7pm on the evening of the 3rd of December._

_Note: Exams for optional subjects are taken in different times on request, if you want to take exams for optional subjects, you need to write a letter of request. If you do not take the exams for any optional subjects, you will not be having any classes on any optional subjects._

_P.S: Touch the scroll in the envelope, and say Strectoll, to get to the school._

_Meals will be provided._

_Regards_

_Professor Forest Boady, Deputy Headmaster of Strectoll Wizarding Academy_

He glanced at Hermione.

"It says that I need to take a test, my test are going to be on the second of December at 10 am, how about yours?" asked Hermione.

"Same," said Harry. "Are you going to request taking exams for optional subjects?"

Hermione shook her head.

"That would be wasting time," she said. "I'd rather not take optional subjects anymore."

Harry counted the days, it was a little bit over a week away.

"Let's do some revision," said Hermione.

Harry nodded. He took out his books, and began to memorize everything he learnt during his previous years, and looking over any available notes that he had written down during his previous years at Hogwarts.

/Scene Break/

"You called me Headmaster?" asked Snape.

"I did," said Dumbledore. "Did you manage to find Harry Potter?"

"I looked over Durmstrang and Beauxbatons, he is not in either of those schools," said Snape.

Dumbledore was shocked with Snape's answer.

"These schools, plus Hogwarts, are the most popular Wizarding schools in the world," he said in disbelief. "Maybe he has gone to the Muggle world, and want to get educated."

"While it might be likely that he has gone to the Muggle world, he could still be in the Wizarding world, maybe there are other Wizarding schools which are not well known throughout the world," said Snape.

"We will have to try our luck, then," said Dumbledore.

In conjunction with his frustration that Harry was not found in either Durmstrang or Beauxbatons, he wondered what country Harry is in right now.

He felt that it would not be wise to call anyone from the Ministry of Magic (other than the people in the Order of the Phoenix) to find Harry, since the Ministry had called Harry a liar, they would just ignore the fact that Harry had gone from the Wizarding Britain, plus that he may be accused of supporting Harry, and his position of Headmaster may be taken away in the blink of an eye.

"You placed too much confidence in me," Snape said. "I even got to the point of spying for you, but you are wasting my time, asking me to do something that is seemingly impossible, something that I have no desire to do."

Dumbledore frowned at the statement, but Snape went on.

"I have been working for you for a long time, but I cannot do something that I know is beyond my abilities," he said.

Dumbledore felt that it would not be wise to argue any further about this, or else Snape may end up on resigning.

"You may leave now, Severus," he said helplessly.

Snape got up and left.

/Scene Break/

The second of December arrived, Harry and Hermione touched the scroll, and in an instant, they were transported to the office of the Strectoll Staff Room.

"You two are here to sit a test?" asked an old man.

Harry and Hermione nodded, and they took out their letters, and handed it to the old man.

"Ah yes," the old man said, after he had finished reading the letter. "I'll introduce myself first, Professor Forest Boady."

"So, where do we take our test, Professor?" asked Harry.

"Follow me, I'll show you," said Professor Boady.

Harry and Hermione followed him, and they arrived in an empty classroom.

"As stated in the letter we sent to you, you need to pass tests before you gain acceptance to this school. You both are going to be tested on four subjects today, each split in two parts," he said. "The theory, and the practical. Tomorrow, you will be tested on the rest."

"You have one hour to do each test, and you will have a twenty minutes break between each one."

"Start now?" asked Harry.

"Yes, now," said Professor Boady.

/Scene Break/

Harry and Hermione got back to the hotel at quarter to two.

"How was your test?" asked Emma.

"Slightly nervous, but I hope I pass," replied Harry. "I skipped a few questions on some of the subjects."

"I felt confident," said Hermione. "I didn't skip any questions, although I can't guarantee that I will get everything right."

"I know you will pass, Hermione," said Harry confidently.

/Scene Break/

Cornelius Fudge had decided to keep Harry's disappearance quiet, even though he had no idea where Harry had gone, at least for now, since he believed that Harry was a liar, according to the Daily Prophet. He could have some peace, instead of listening to Harry's word about Voldemort's return.

Nevertheless, he knew that even if he didn't keep it quiet, it didn't matter anymore, since the Wizarding world will be delighted that this attention seeking liar is gone, except the fact that some people would probably not like it, they are Dumbledore supporters who believe that Voldemort's back, which didn't worry him.

None of the members of the Order of the Phoenix who worked in the Ministry wanted to argue with the Minister about this, since they feared that the Minister will sack them if they did.

They knew that the fact that Harry had disappeared would make matters worse, as Harry was the only one who had saw Voldemort coming back. Voldemort would take the opportunity to take over the Wizarding Britain, and they had no idea how Fudge will react when Voldemort shows up.

/Scene Break/

Dumbledore was sitting in his office, sighing heavily, he was still thinking about how to get Harry back, but he didn't know how much use the members of the Order of the Phoenix would be for this job.

Just then, there was a knock on the door.

"Enter," Dumbledore said.

The door opened, and Tonks and Kingsley appeared.

"How can I help you?" Dumbledore asked.

"Bad news Dumbledore," Kingsley said. "I and Nymphadora Tonks went to the Grangers to check and see if Harry was there, and this time, while we could gain access to the residence, we found someone in there, but Harry was not there at all."

"The person who lived there doesn't really know Harry's whereabouts," Tonks added.

"Who?" asked Dumbledore.

"Simon Harris and his family is now living there," said Tonks.

"Where are the Grangers now?" asked Dumbledore.

"I have no idea," said Tonks. "Simon told me that the Grangers didn't tell them where they were going to go."

Dumbledore was shocked, he sighed, and looked down on the ground.

Consider the fact that the Order couldn't get into the Granger residence one week ago, and the fact that they could reach the same residence now, he wondered whether the Grangers had moved to another house or left the country.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

**Anxieties**

Disclaimer: Everything in Harry Potter universe belongs to J.K. Rowling. I got nothing out of this except for enjoyment.

"How are you doing, dears?" Emma asked.

It was almost nine o'clock in the evening, Harry and Hermione have just finished their Astronomy tests.

"I should pass, at least," Harry said. "There's no way that I am going to fail this one, even though I can't get a higher score."

He knew that he have answered most of the questions in the tests correctly, but he was slightly worried about his practical exam.

/Scene Break/

A few days after the 3rd of December, Harry and Hermione received a letter each.

It was from Strectoll.

Harry took out his letter and started to read.

_Dear Mr Potter_

_Congratulations, you have been accepted to Strectoll Wizarding Academy._

_Please find the letter that include the orientation date of this school in the envelope._

_P.S: Touch the scroll in the envelope to get to Strectoll_

_Regards_

_Professor Forest Boady, Deputy Headmaster of Strectoll Wizarding Academy_

Harry smiled sweetly at Hermione.

"I've got accepted, Harry," said Hermione.

"So did I," said Harry.

He pulled out the orientation dates from the envelope, and he discovered that it is going to be on the 7th of December, at half past nine in the morning.

/Scene Break/

Snape, meanwhile, was searching for other possible Wizarding schools, pity that he didn't manage to find Harry, as he did not manage to discover Strectoll, since it was listed as one of the least popular Wizarding schools in the whole world, as a result it would be very difficult to find it.

Meanwhile, Dumbledore started to scan the list of students enrolled in Hogwarts, and he discovered that things had gone just as he suspected, that Harry and Hermione's name had disappeared from the list, generally this would mean that they had been accepted into another school.

He sighed deeply.

Just then, Snape arrived.

"Any news about Harry?" asked Dumbledore.

"I have not managed to find him successfully," replied Snape.

Before Dumbledore could say anything else, an owl landed beside him, carrying the Daily Prophet.

He took the Daily Prophet from the owl's leg, unfolded it, and started to read.

**Harry Potter 'Disappeared?'**

_A few weeks ago, Harry Potter, along with his friend, Hermione Granger, has disappeared from Hogwarts without a trace._

_At the moment, no one has any explanation about where they are._

_Harry was a crazy boy, indeed, from the snake incident that occurred a couple years ago, to the fact that he is competing in the Tri-Wizard Tournament, and then, his announcement of You-Know-Who's return._

_The Headmaster of Hogwarts, Albus Dumbledore, who had been dismissed as the Chief Warlock of Wizengamot, and the Supreme Mugwump of Intenational Confederation of Wizards, still believed the lies that Harry Potter had told him, that You-Know-Who's returned._

_Harry Potter must have snapped, and he disappeared without a trace. Dumbledore must have placed too many pressures on Harry to believe You-Know-Who's return._

_Harry had also made an excuse that he used magic outside Hogwarts for defending himself against Dementors. He might have been making it up that there were Dementors._

Albus Dumbledore put down the Daily Prophet absent-mindedly, and he looked up.

"Forget about him, Dumbledore!" Snape snarled. "Didn't you see what the Daily Prophet said about him?"

"I know," said Dumbledore.

"Then why don't you just forget about him?" asked Snape.

"If I just forget about his disappearance, who is going to be defeating Voldemort?" asked Dumbledore. "What if it is too late for the Minister to take actions as soon as he is convinced about Voldemort's return?"

Snape pondered Dumbledore's questions in his head for a moment, he didn't know what to do, he didn't know whether he should stand at Dumbledore's side and worry about the state that the Wizarding world is in right now, and do what he could, or act as if nothing had happened. To him, the disappearance of Harry Potter had not been an issue.

"I understand, Headmaster, but searching for him would only be a waste of time," he said. "On one hand, how long do you reckon it would take for the Minister to believe the Dark Lord had returned? On the other hand, do you suppose that the Minister is going to look for Harry Potter after he admitted the Dark Lord's return? I think not, since I don't think he knows the prophecy regarding the Dark Lord and Harry Potter. If it is too late for the Ministry to take any actions, we will have to live with it."

Dumbledore sighed heavily, Snape's statement may be right at some point, but he was not going to settle this issue because of this, and he wondered if Snape was really going to turn to the dark side again if it was too late for the Ministry to take actions.

In spite of this, his priority was to get Harry back to Hogwarts, and it didn't really matter if the Minister had no idea about the prophecy.

"I assume you want to allow the Wizarding Britain to be turned into a Wizarding battlefield," he said.

"No, I don't think I would allow the Wizarding Britain to go into that state, but whatever happens to the Wizarding Britain is not in my control," said Snape. "You, on the other hand, are not in control of what happens to the Wizarding Britain. The fact that Harry Potter had gone to another school has nothing to do with you."

"Who is going to be defeating Voldemort?" asked Dumbledore, repeating what he said earlier.

Snape did not answer, instead, he gazed at Dumbledore.

"I don't want to discuss this matter any further, Severus," said Dumbledore disappointedly.

Snape got up and left.

/Scene Break/

The rest of the Order of the Phoenix was dismayed about Harry's departure from Britain. They had searched for him, but they didn't manage to find him. They did not understand why he had left, and where he is at the moment. He had not been leaving a letter informing the Wizarding Britain about his departure.

"What do you think, Arthur?" asked Molly.

"I would be surprised if Harry has gone from Hogwarts without a purpose," said Arthur.

"What kind of purpose do you think he has?" asked Molly.

Arthur pondered the question in his head for a while.

"According to the Daily Prophet, he has snapped," he said.

"And Hermione has gone too," said Molly. "This makes me wonder what relationship she and Harry is in. The Daily Prophet had said that Harry and Hermione were in a relationship last year."

"Maybe this would turn out to be true," said Arthur. "Surely they would be inseparable from now on."

Just then, Bill appeared.

"What are you two doing?" he asked.

Arthur and Molly turned their attention to Bill.

"We were just discussing about Harry," said Arthur.

"I hope you don't mind my saying so, but his vault is empty," said Bill.

Arthur and Molly gasped, if Harry's vault was empty, then it would mean that he had left Britain.

"That means he has left this country," said Arthur.

"Do you think we should report this to Dumbledore?" asked Molly.

"We should," said Arthur.

/Scene Break/

Voldemort looked at the Daily Prophet, and he laughed in a thrilling manner. He knew that this would be the perfect opportunity for him to take over the Wizarding world, since Harry had disappeared, and it would be good for him to seize his chance before the Ministry realise his return, and he simply couldn't wait to do it.

He started to read the Daily Prophet aloud to his followers, after he finished reading, the Death Eaters laughed.

"You know what this means, we can get the Minister of Magic into our hands," Voldemort said, putting the Daily Prophet down.

"Yeah," said Lucius blissfully. "Currently Fudge has chosen to not believe that you have returned, thus it is an ideal chance for us to act."

"We will take this opportunity to kidnap the Minister, and perhaps one of his bodyguards, and we will torture and kill the bodyguard in front of him," said Voldemort, nodding. "As soon as we get the Lestranges and the other Death Eaters out of Azkaban, we will act."

"Hooray!" the Death Eaters roared happily together.

Then they laughed and clapped, and Voldemort joined in.

"That will do," Voldemort said, after a few minutes later. "We shall make a surprising appearance in front of the Minister of Magic, and scare him, then we will stun him before he react."

"Or maybe we can use the Full Body Bind Curse on him," said Lucius.

"Maybe," Voldemort said, nodding.

The Death Eaters knew that there's no more to be said about this, since they knew what will happen after they had done all this. After the Minister had been killed, they will be able to take over the Ministry, and it will give them the opportunity to tyranny the Wizarding world, and possibly attack the Muggle world as well.

/Scene Break/

The students in Hogwarts each had different reactions to what the Daily Prophet said about Harry.

"I can't believe he has acted cowardly," said Fred.

"Why do you think he's a coward?" asked George.

"He has disappeared," said Fred.

"Umbridge has given him a lifelong ban of quidditch," George reminded Fred. "I am not surprised that he has left."

Just then, Ron appeared.

"I can't believe that the Daily Prophet had made Harry out to be crazy," he said in a low voice. "I am wondering how they would react if You-Know-Who takes over the Ministry."

"How do you feel about Harry's disappearance?" asked George.

"His disappearance really makes me go mad," said Ron. "Since Hermione had disappeared too, I really don't know how I am going to get through this year."

He put down the Daily Prophet, and sighed.

Harry and Hermione's disappearance from Hogwarts had a huge impact on him, at the moment, his marks are not really in a satisfactory standard. He didn't know if he is going to be able to pass his OWLs, and he didn't know what his parents will say if he failed it.

"You will get through this year, Ron," George said.

"Oh yeah! And fail my OWLs?" Ron said.

"Don't tell me that you have cheated your way through all those years, Ron," Fred said.

Ron fell silent.

To make matters even worse, Draco Malfoy and Pansy Parkinson sneered at him when they saw him doing his prefect duties, which made him feel angry, and annoyed.

In spite of all these things, he knew that he will be spending Christmas without Harry and Hermione, which means that this Christmas would not be as happy as the past few Christmas from the year he arrived at Hogwarts.

Lavender, along with Parvati, had a different reaction.

"Where do you think he is right now?" Lavender asked.

Parvati shook her head.

"I am wondering what method he had used to escape this place," Lavender went on.

Parvati shook her head again, apparantly she had absolutely no idea about this.

They walked along the corridor, and they met a few Ravenclaws and a few Hufflepuffs.

"Hi Parvati," said Ernie.

"Hi Ernie," Parvati said.

Before they could say anything else, Padma arrived, holding a copy of the Daily Prophet.

"I already read this once, and there's no need for me to read it again," Ernie said. "This is all about the snide remarks about Harry, and he had fled with Hermione, why would I want to read it? I knew it, Harry had been made out to be crazy."

/Scene Break/

Harry and Hermione arrived to Strectoll on the 7th of December.

"I know that you two would come," said Professor Boady.

He introduced Harry and Hermione to the Headmaster, Professor Gail Albany.

"Potter, I want to know how you feel about Hogwarts," Professor Albany said.

For over half an hour, Harry told Professor Albany about his adventure at Hogwarts, and everything that had happened to him while he was there.

As soon as he finished, Professor Albany's expression was void.

"Incredible," he said. "We would never have allowed biased teachers to teach here. What on earth is Albus thinking?"

"Tolerance of biased staff members are just not acceptable, it would be so unfair," said Professor Boady. "How would students be educated properly if staff members are baised, favoring their own house over others? This is clearly not education, but rather of how to give students of their own house comfort while treating students from other houses despicibly. One side would be terrified and the other side would be fearless, that would cause one side to become pampered."

"Such things like this will never happen in our school," said Professor Albany. "Having teachers docking points for no proper reason is just not acceptable, nor is favoring one student over the other counted as acceptable, additionally, having a caretaker who hated the students is not acceptable either. What's the point of keeping a caretaker in a school who doesn't show respect to the students?"

Harry and Hermione nodded in agreement.

"In our school, we organise students into teams," said Professor Albany. "We have six teams."

"There're only two common rooms, one is for team one to three, the other is for team four to six," added Professor Boady.

Harry and Hermione turned to face each other, they smiled.

"You know what that means, Harry?" said Hermione. "We can meet the students from other teams."

"I can't wait to see them," said Harry.

Professor Boady smiled, he was pleased about Harry's sincerety for wanting to study here, he was delighted to have two new students coming into this school on the following year.

"You both will receive your school term information in five days time, and you both will receive a team badge," said Professor Albany. "Since I know that you two are friends, we will put you both into the same team."

Harry and Hermione grinned at each other, they knew that things are going to change for them real soon, and they couldn't wait for it to happen.

"That's so sweet, Harry," said Hermione a moment later, putting her arm around him.

Then Professor Albany handed Harry and Hermione a form each.

"Fill it in," he said.

It took about fifteen minutes for Harry and Hermione to fill in their forms, after they filled it in, they handed it back to Professor Albany.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

**Christmas Break**

Disclaimer: Everything in Harry Potter universe belongs to J.K. Rowling. I got nothing out of this except for enjoyment.

Over the next few days, Harry and Hermione were excited about the new school they are going to attend.

"I once thought that Hogwarts was a good school, only now I realised that it is really not that good," said Hermione.

"Yeah," said Harry.

Five days later, Professor Boady arrived at the Hotel that Harry and Hermione lived in early in the morning, and he placed two letters on the table.

"Potter, Granger," he said. "I've got both your list of books and equipments with me, if you want to buy them from the shops in Sternford Alley, I can accompany you two, if you want to order them from the school, you can fill in the form enclosed in the letter."

Harry and Hermione looked at each other.

"We will buy them," said Harry.

"You both will also be needing uniforms," said Professor Boady. "Navy Blue robes."

Harry and Hermione opened their envelopes, and they examined the contents inside it, it included their team badges, and their list of uniforms, books and equipments that are needed for school, and also an order form. They just discovered that the school will start on the eighth of January. There was also bus ticket and train ticket, plus a note that says all students need to arrive at Friddish Train Station at no later than five past three in the afternoon.

"I am in team three," said Harry.

"So am I," Hermione said.

Harry glanced at the bus ticket and train ticket, and he was perplexed.

"Why is there a bus ticket and a train ticket in here?" he asked.

"Students may choose to ignore both of these tickets, depends on how far away this school is from their home, some may need to catch a bus to go to Strectoll, some of them may need to catch a train to get there, some of them can just walk there. Nevertheless, whatever transportation methods they use, they need to arrive at Friddish Train Station, and a professor from Strectoll will be waiting for them, and lead them in once everyone has arrived," Professor Boady said.

"There's so much to buy," said Hermione.

"Your book list appears different than the other fifth year students in Strectoll," said Professor Boady. "Since you two did not attend Strectoll from your first year, you both will need to buy additional books, the books that the Strectoll students had already obtained prior to their first year."

"We have time, shall we go now?" asked Harry.

"It would be best if you have your parents or guardians to come with us," said Professor Boady.

/Scene Break/

Dan and Emma agreed to accompany Harry and Hermione to Sternford Alley to buy their books, uniforms and equipments in the afternoon.

One hour after lunchtime, they set off.

They made their way to the bus station, and waited for about ten minutes, and the bus arrived.

They hopped onto the bus, and they took their seats.

"When are we going to get off?" asked Emma.

"I'll tell you," said Professor Boady.

Twenty minutes later, Professor Boady hit the stop button, then the bus driver stopped the bus, and opened the door.

"Let's go," said Professor Boady.

They got down from the bus, and Professor Boady led them to a place.

A wall made out of rafters appeared in front of them.

"Here is Sternford Alley," he said.

He pulled out his wand, and waved at it.

The wall started to split itself apart, forming an entrance, and they entered through it.

They continued to walk along the pathway for a moment.

"Do you have any money, Potter?" asked Professor Boady.

"I have already transferred all of my money from Gringotts Wizarding Bank in Britain," said Harry. "Right now they should be in my vault of the Wizarding Nation Bank."

"There are several Wizarding banks in this country," said Professor Boady. "Wizarding Nation Bank is not too far away from here, but it would still take twenty five minutes to walk from here to Wizarding Nation Bank. It would be easier if I can just apparate you both."

"I'd rather walk, or else I may not know where to go if I am going to walk from here to the bank the next time I need to get money," said Harry.

"Very well," said Professor Boady.

They arrived at the bank about twenty five minutes later, and they entered into the reception area.

"How can I help you, dears?" the receptionist asked.

"I would like to visit my vault, vault 8864," said Harry, after he double checked his vault information that Gringotts had given him.

"We would like to exchange these US dollars to Wizard's currency," said Emma.

"If you want to get money out of your vault, go to the Withdraw Center to get your key, which is on your right. If you want to exchange currencies between Muggle money and Wizard money, go to the Exchange Center, which is on the left side of the Withdraw Center."

"I'll accompany you, Harry," said Professor Boady.

He and Harry went to the Withdraw Center, and he asked the teller for the vault key of 8864.

"I'll fetch it for you," said the teller.

Harry noticed that there are many hangers on the teller's left side, and each hanger had a key suspended to it, some of the keys are silver, and some of them are gold, and the keys all had a chain attached to it.

"Here it is," said the teller, holding out a key in gold colour. "Do you need someone to lead you to vault 8864?"

"Yes," said Harry.

It was an honest answer, since he had no familiarity with this bank, and thus he does not know where his vault is.

Professor Boady didn't object, since he was also not familiar with the location of the vault.

"I'll lead you there," said the teller.

They walked past numerous vaults, and about ten minutes later, they arrived at Harry's vault.

He opened the vault with the key.

Harry entered his vault, and started to collect his money and putting them into a container. As soon as the container is full, Harry closed the lid, and he walked out of his vault.

"You seemed to be so wealthy, Potter," said Professor Boady quietly.

"My parents left them for me," said Harry.

Then the teller closed the vault, and locked it.

After they got back to the reception area, they saw Hermione and her parents waiting for them, they happily walked out of the bank together.

They stopped at a shop called _Books and Equipments for Wizarding Schools._

"How many Wizarding schools are in this country?" Hermione asked curiously.

"More than one," replied Professor Boady. "But Strectoll is by far the best Wizarding school in this country."

They brought the necessary books, and equipments, and then it was time for them to buy robes.

They went into a robe shop called Sir Johnson's All Purpose Robe Shop to buy their robes.

"Strectoll?" asked Sir Johnson.

Harry and Hermione both nodded.

"Now, come here, you two," said Professor Boady.

They walked for a few moments, and then Professor Boady stopped.

"This," he said, pointing to the navy blue robes, "is the robe that students attending Strectoll are supposed to wear."

As soon as Harry picked his robes, he went to the fitting room to try it out. After he found the robes that fits him, he paid for the robes, and he waited until Hermione finished trying out her robes, then they went to the counter to pay for it.

Professor Boady then invited them to go to his home from Christmas Day to the day that the school begins.

"Can't thank you enough," said Emma. "We will be looking for a place to live as soon as Harry and Hermione start their new school."

/Scene Break/

Meanwhile, at Hogwarts, Dumbledore was annoyed.

He was still wondering about the mysterious disappearance of Harry Potter and Hermione Granger, and it made him tremble when the thought came into his mind that they may be together. He knew that Harry had to die, and then defeat Voldemort. He also knew that Hermione was too smart, and she could easily disrupt his plan for Harry.

Unheeding the things that the Daily Prophet had said about Harry, it was important for Harry to remain at Hogwarts, or else Dumbledore could not carry on with his plan.

Severus did not help much in this matter, he did not find Harry in either Durmstrang or Beauxbatons. It was much too unlikely for Harry and Hermione to go to a Wizarding school that he didn't know about.

Dumbledore also could not take Severus's word to leave Harry be, since he need to direct Harry.

Perhaps writing a letter to Harry would work. But will he come back?

/Scene Break/

Harry and Hermione were preparing for their first Christmas in USA. They were putting up Christmas decorations.

"This is lovely," Hermione observed, after they finished decorating the Christmas tree. "This Christmas is going to be wonderful."

Before Harry could say anything, he saw Fawkes landing beside them, carrying a letter.

Harry took the letter, and opened the envelope.

It said:

_Dear Harry_

_Where are you right now?_

_You need to come back to Hogwarts, since your friends are in danger._

_Regards_

_Albus Dumbledore_

"That manipulative bastard!" shouted Harry, he felt disdained about the content of the letter. His exciting moment had just been interrupted. "He hadn't been speaking to me, or even looked at me ever since I got back to Hogwarts for my fifth year, why would he bother to write me a letter telling me to go back? If my friends are in danger, why couldn't he deal with it? Who did he think I am?"

"I am not in any danger, Harry," said Hermione.

"I know, I mean my friends in Hogwarts," Harry said calmly.

Hermione moved closer to see what the letter was about, as soon as she finished reading, a scornful expression appeared on her face.

Before she could say a word, Dan and Emma arrived.

"What's wrong?" Dan asked, seeing Hermione's expression.

"Harry just received a letter from Dumbledore," explained Hermione.

"What did he want?" asked Emma.

"He want me to go back to Hogwarts, according to his letter, my friends are in danger," said Harry, handing the letter to Emma. "But I am not going back. I don't want to go back to a dark, bigoted, prejudiced world again. He can deal with the danger that my friends are in."

Dan couldn't resist the feeling, according to what he heard from James and Lily, he knew what Dumbledore truly is.

"Should I write back?" asked Harry.

"Don't write back, Harry," responded Hermione. "If Dumbledore hadn't been speaking to you since you got back to Hogwarts, why would he want you to go back now? It appears that he didn't really care about you, that he want to use you instead. If you go back and faced difficult situation again, and if he still keeps on ignoring you, it would do you no good."

"Yes, don't write back to scams, Harry," agreed Dan.

"I don't know what scam means," said Harry blankly.

"Scams are dishonest plans or actions, they are designed to trick you, and if you fall for them, you may experience loss, and sometimes it can put you in danger," explained Emma, putting the letter down.

Harry nodded. He knew what Dan meant, this letter is likely a scamming letter.

/Scene Break/

Forest Boady arrived at the hotel on the morning of Christmas Day, and he side-alonged Harry and the Grangers to his home.

"This would make your Christmas better," he said.

"Thank you," said Harry.

He glanced at Forest's house, it was not as cluttered as the Burrow, there were a few portraits on the wall, and the wall was creamy white, and the floor was a light yellow colour. A black dining table was situated in the dining room, and around it there were six chairs.

"There's no light switches," said Emma, as she examined the room.

"I know," said Professor Boady. "This is a Wizarding residence, Wizarding residence generally don't have light switch, they have other ways of turning on the light."

"You must be at least a Half Blood," said Harry.

"You are right, Potter," said Professor Boady.

He paused for a moment.

"So Potter, what has got into you lately?" he asked.

Harry told him about Dumbledore's letter, as soon as he finished, Professor Boady was not very happy.

"Incredible," he said. "Don't know what has got into him."

They talked until twelve o'clock.

Professor Boady summoned some sandwitches, and one flask of pumpkin juice. After they had eaten, Professor Boady gave Harry and Hermione a present each.

"Merry Christmas," he said.

"Thanks," said Harry.

/Scene Break/

On boxing day, Harry and Hermione opened their presents, and they discovered that Professor Boady have given them each a mirror."

"You can contact each other using these mirrors," said Professor Boady. "Just say each other's name, and your partner will appear."

"How do we know that someone is calling me through this mirror?" asked Harry.

"When someone calls you through this mirror, it will beep," said Professor Boady. "You can try it."

"How?" asked Harry.

"Potter, you go to your bedroom, and Granger, you stay here," said Professor Boady.

About ten seconds after Harry went into his bedroom, there was a beep. Harry immediately held up the mirror, and Hermione's face appeared.

"Hello Harry," she said.

"Hello Hermione," said Harry.

Then Harry raced out of his room, until he was in the same room as Hermione.

Then something happened.

Hermione's face vanished from the mirror, and his face appeared. He called Hermione's name in the mirror, but he didn't hear Hermione's mirror beeping.

"I assume you have some questions, Potter, don't you?" asked Professor Boady.

"Does this mirror only act like a normal mirror if I am in the same room as the other person who have this mirror?" asked Harry.

Professor Boady nodded.

"Yes, if you and your recipient are in the same room, the mirror will function as a normal mirror, even if you tried to call their names, if you are in one room and your recipient is in another room, your recipient's mirror will beep as soon as you call their name, and vice versa."

"This mirror is amazing," said Harry.

"I am glad that you like it," said Professor Boady.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

**School Starts**

Disclaimer: Everything in Harry Potter universe belongs to J.K. Rowling. I got nothing out of this except for enjoyment.

The holidays passed without much of an incident, after New Year's Holiday, Harry and Hermione were looking forward to meet the new students in Strectoll Wizarding Academy.

"Good to see that you two are studying right now," said Professor Boady.

"How do I get to Platform Six and Half?" asked Harry.

"I'll tell you how to do it," said Professor Boady. "Besides, I should mention that some students may just ignore the train ticket, because they lived very close to Strectoll."

/Scene Break/

On the eighth of January, Harry and Hermione got up early, since they knew that the train arrives at quarter past ten, and leaves at half past ten in the morning.

After breakfast, Hermione checked her watch.

"It is quarter to ten," she said.

"I shall apparate you both there," said Professor Boady.

He shrunk Harry and Hermione's trunk, and placed them inside his pocket, and then he grasped Harry and Hermione's hands, and turned on the spot.

Harry felt Professor Boady's arm twist away from him and redoubled his grip; the next thing he knew; everything went black; he was being pressed very hard from all directions; he could not breathe, there were iron bands tightening around his chest; his eyeballs were being forced back into his head; his eardrums were being pushed deeper into his skull and then -

He opened his eyes, and saw a train station, it was crowded with students who are attending the school, and Professor Boady said:

"Now, we will make our way between Platform Six and Platform Seven, and then we will go from there."

As soon as they got to the area between Platform Six and Platform Seven, Professor Boady said:

"Let's go together."

He grabbed Harry and Hermione's arms, and rushed forward.

Harry didn't feel too nervous, since he already had the similar experience going through the barrier of Platform Nine and Three Quarters quite a few times before.

He glanced around as he rushed past Platform Six and Half, and saw a train labelled 'Strectoll Express'.

Professor Boady took out Harry and Hermione's trunk, and resized them back to their original size, then he helped Harry and Hermione lifting their trunks onto the train.

"See you at Strectoll," Professor Boady said.

Harry and Hermione found a compartment to themselves, and a moment later, two students arrived.

"Hi," one of the students said. "Elijah Addy, and this is Lynn Mart."

"Nice to meet you," said Harry. "Harry Potter, and this is Hermione Granger."

He took out his team badge, and pinned it on his robe.

"I am in team three as well," said Elijah. "Lynn is in team one, but you can still meet him in your common room."

"Harry, Hermione, are you attending your first year at this school?" asked Lynn.

"No," replied Harry. "We have decided to transfer here."

"What school were you in before?" asked Lynn.

"Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry," replied Hermione.

Elijah and Lynn looked at each other, then they turned back to Harry and Hermione again.

"You must have been quite unsatisfied with Hogwarts," said Elijah. "I want to know why."

Harry told Elijah everything that had happened to him in Hogwarts, Elijah was quite stunned.

"Despicable," he said. "I can assure you that in our school, such things won't happen."

Just then, a trolley arrived.

Harry and Hermione bought food for themselves, and they sat back down again.

"Maybe I can introduce you someone else," said Elijah.

Before Harry and Hermione could say something, one boy and one girl appeared.

"Seems that these two are new, Elijah," the girl said.

"That's right, they just transferred in," said Elijah. "Harry Potter and Hermione Granger."

"Hello, my name is Hessie Jasmier, and this is Owen Mattern."

"Nice to see you two," said Harry.

Several hours passed, and then a voice said:

"We will be reaching Strectoll in five minutes time, please leave your trunks on the train, it will be taken separately to the school."

Five minutes later, the train stopped.

Harry, Hermione and the rest of the students got down from the train, and they saw a Witch with blond hair, and a few other students arrived, and joined her.

"New students, please follow me," she said.

The students followed her, and after a while, a grey door appeared.

The Witch pointed her wand at the door, and the door moved upwards, then a passageway was revealed.

They walked through the passageway, and they were being led to a room, Harry saw the sign 'Welcome Room', and he felt impressed.

As soon as all the students entered the Welcome Room, the witch said.

"Good afternoon, my name is Professor Brett Moore."

She paused for a moment.

"New students, you will need to wait for a few hours before the feast begin at half past five, please be sure to come back to the Welcome Room at twenty past five. Right now, you can either stay here or go out to the grounds and play."

Hermione checked her watch.

"It's only ten past three," she said. "We arriving so early here."

A first year boy saw Harry, and he greeted him.

"Good day, Richard Cook," he said. "What is your name?"

"Harry Potter," Harry said.

"How did you arrive here?" Richard asked.

"I arrived here by train," Harry said. "What about you?"

"I just walked to the train station," Richard said.

"It seems that your house is quite close to this school," Harry said.

Richard nodded.

A few hours later, all the new students were back at the Welcome Room, and then Professor Moore appeared again.

"Follow me," she said.

Harry, Hermione and the rest of the students followed her for a few minutes, and then Professor Moore said.

"If you are attending your first year at this school, or if you are transferred to here from another school, stay here with Professor Boady. The rest of you, follow me."

The students above first year got to their feet, and followed the blonde witch, whereas the first years, and Harry and Hermione, stood there.

"New students, I shall introduce myself first, Professor Forest Boady. I am the Deputy Headmaster of Strectoll."

He paused, and then resumed.

"The first thing that we will do is to sort the first years into teams, before we start our feast," he said, "and you will occupy in one of the two common rooms, either from team 1 to 3, or team 4 to 6. You will receive points if you have done something for the school. If you break school rule, you won't lose points but there may be other consequences waiting."

"I shall be back when we are ready for you," he said.

After about ten minutes, Professor Boady arrived back.

"Now, first year students, please go to the hall, and you will be sorted into teams. Transferring students, stay where you are and you will get in after the team sorting is over, then you shall be introduced."

Then he opened the door, revealing the hall.

The first years went into the hall, whereas Harry and Hermione waited.

"You both wait here with me," said Professor Boady.

After twenty minutes, he said:

"I shall go in and check with the Headmaster first, then I will come back and get you two."

Harry and Hermione both nodded, and then Professor Boady left.

After one minute, Professor Boady arrived back.

"Follow me, you two," he said.

Harry and Hermione both followed Professor Boady into the hall, until the reach the staff table.

"Before we start our feast, I would like to introduce two new students, transferred from Hogwarts, a Wizarding school of Britain, to here," Professor Boady said: "Harry Potter, and Hermione Granger."

All the students clapped.

"Now you both may go to your team table," said Professor Boady.

Harry and Hermione made their way to the team table, only found that nothing was on there.

Then Professor Albany said:

"Let the feast begin."

Foods appeared on the table.

Harry grabbed everything he could reach, and started to eat.

After the feast, everyone was sleepy.

"Follow me, you two," Elijah said to Harry and Hermione.

Harry and Hermione followed Elijah until they saw the door labelled Team 1 to 3.

Elijah stood in front of the door, a second later, the door opened.

He entered.

Then Harry stood in front of the door, a second later, the door opened, then Harry entered.

Ten seconds later, Hermione appeared.

"Good night, Harry," she said.

"Good night, Hermione," said Harry.

Then Hermione rushed to the girls' dormitory, while Harry made his way to the boys' dormitory.

Then he went to the bed, and slept.

/Scene Break/

Unlike Hogwarts, Strectoll's staircases were non magical, that one does have to jump at all since there were no trick steps. It was much more user friendly, all they need to do is to walk up and down the staircases like the Muggles do. Plus, Cushioning Charms were set above and below every staircases, so even if someone fell down from a staircase, they would not get injured.

/Scene Break/

On the following morning, Harry woke up, got dressed, and went down to breakfast.

After breakfast, Professor Boady was handing out timetables.

Harry glanced at his timetable, and he was glad that Divinition is no longer there, but there was still Double Potions, and it was his first class, he wondered what the new Potions professor will be like.

Nevertheless, he had taken a bit too long, and as soon as he tried to leave, Hermione stopped him.

"Where is our classrooom?" she asked.

Harry shook his head.

Luckily, Professor Boady saw Harry and Hermione hesitating, so he went over, and pulled out two pieces of paper.

"This is the map of this school," he said. "You can keep them."

"Does everyone in this school get a map like this, Professor?" Hermione asked as Harry picked up the map and examined it.

"This map is handed out to all the first years on the first day they arrive here, but they can be given to transferring students on the first day they take their classes," Professor Boady replied. "The reason for this is that the first years knows nothing about this school, and no one would be able to lead them to their classes, as for students above first year, you can just follow other students who are above first year to your class."

Harry and Hermione thanked Professor Boady, and glanced at the map.

"Let's go, Hermione," Harry said.

They followed the route on the map, and found the potions class.

As soon as Harry and Hermione entered, they saw a man with a golden hair, he greeted them, and they sat down.

A few moments later, a crowd of students arrived and took their seats.

"Good morning everyone, my name is Professor George Brown," the man with golden hair said. "Today, we are going to be brewing Draught of Peace."

Harry's face went pale.

He had been brewing the Draught of Peace before, and he ended up on doing it wrong because he forgot to add an ingredient, which made Snape vanish his potion.

He hoped that this does not happen again, even though he knew that Professor Brown would not be as biased as Snape was.

"The ingredients are in the cupboard," said Professor Brown. "You have about two hours left. You may start now."

Harry quickly opened his potions book, and he fetched the ingredients required.

Then he started his work.

He looked in the book before he take a step, and after one and half an hour, he got the potions brewed.

Ten minutes before the end of the lesson, Professor Brown examined everyone's potion, and for Harry and Hermione's potions, he gave them ten points each.

After the lesson, Harry felt that this lesson was very good. He knows that Snape wouldn't have given him any points even if he had his potions done correctly.

"I never had a decent potions lesson before," he said.

"Nor have I," said Hermione. "This teacher seemed to be more competent."

They made their way to their next class, which is Defense Against the Dark Arts, as soon as they arrived, some students have already entered the classroom.

As soon as Harry and Hermione entered the class, they saw a man standing at his desk, and Harry assumed that he is going to be one to teach Defense Against the Dark Arts. They quietly took their seats, and facing the teacher. A moment later, several more students arrived.

"Good morning everyone, my name is Professor Jessie Reamy," he said, after a moment of silence. "I am here to teach you defensive spells, without it, you will never know how to defend yourself. Besides, most of the things that I teach you will most likely be part of your OWLs exam in this subject."

Harry felt elated, this is really what they were supposed to learn, defensive spells.

Professor Reamy paused for a moment.

"The spell that I am going to teach you today, is called Backthrow Freezing Jinx, which throws you backwards, and cause you to freeze until someone frees you," he said. "The incantation is _Nesitatio._"

He pulled out his wand.

"Say the incantation without your wand first," he said.

"_Nesitatio!_" the students shouted.

"Good, now divide into pairs, and practice it, don't worry if you don't know how to do it, or get stuck," he said.

The students got to their feet, and found their pairs, Harry paired up with Hermione, and they started to practice.

"_Nesitatio!_" Harry said, pointing his wand at Hermione.

Hermione was knocked back several feet, and then she went frozen.

"_Finite Incantatem!_" Harry said, pointing his wand at Hermione again.

Hermione got up.

"Now do it to me," said Harry.

Hermione pointed her wand at Harry, and used the same spell, and the same effect happened.

"_Finite Incantatem!_" Hermione shouted.

Harry felt that he could move again.

At the end of the class, Professor Reamy told everyone that he will be teaching them a new defensive spell in their next class, and Professor Reamy awarded five points to everyone who had done this spell successfully.

"That was a very good lesson," Harry said as they walked out of the classroom.

"I agree," said Hermione.

After break, they set off to their Transfiguration class.

As soon as they went into the Transfiguration classroom, they saw the same Witch they had met when they got down from the train.

"Good day everyone, for those of you who do not know me, my name is Professor Brett Moore," she said.

"For your Ordinary Wizarding Levels, you will be tested on a range of Transfiguration spells, one of them is the Vanishing Spell, which we are going to be starting today. This spell is easier than Conjuring spells, which you usually would not attempt until NEWT level, but Vanishing Spell is still not easy to perform."

Harry felt confident with this, since he had the same lesson with Professor McGonagall in Hogwarts, this was just a repetition of the same thing. After all, it doesn't really hurt to learn the same thing the second time.

"Let's go, everyone," said Professor Moore. "Don't hesitate to ask if you need any help."

Everyone got to their feet and pulled out their wand, and they practised the spell with the snails.

Harry and Hermione have absolutely no difficulties doing the Vanishing Spells, given the fact that they had done it before.

Professor Moore walked around and looked at everyone's progress.

"Mr Collins, you have a bit of lack of confidence," she said, "you too, Mr Wallace, let me show you..."

As she moved to Harry and Hermione's table, she was astounded that their snails were not there.

"Potter, Granger, how many times have you two vanished your snails? Can you show me that you can do it?" she asked, after a few seconds of silence.

Harry and Hermione got to their feet, while Profesor Moore examined their movement, and found that they were completely right.

"You two must have been practicing during your free time, dears," said Professor Moore.

"We've learnt it in Hogwarts," said Harry.

Professor Moore was stunned.

"Very well, Mr Potter," she said. "Fifteen points to both you and Miss Granger."

Then she marched off to see how others have progressed.

At the end of the class, Professor Moore said:

"Those of you who have already managed to cast this spell successfully will have no homework tonight, and those of you who did not manage to cast this spell successfully will be required to practise overnight, but don't hesitate to come to me for help if you need them. Class dismissed."

"This is different," said Harry. "She even asked those who needed help to go to her and ask her for it, I don't know what to say, she's really decent, even better than McGonagall."

"I assume that you need this sort of teacher to teach you Transfiguration," said Hermione.

Then they made their way to their Charms class. As soon as they entered, the others were not there yet.

"Mr Potter, Miss Granger, you two are early, take a seat," he said. "My name is Professor Jeremy Miller."

A few more minutes later, the other fifth years arrived.

"Now you are coming into your most important exams of the year, your Ordinary Wizarding Levels exam," Professor Miller said. "The OWL examinations will influence your futures for many years to come! If you have not given your serious thought to your careers, now it is the time to think about it, before it is too late."

Then he began to review the Summoning Charm, which was not surprising to either Harry or Hermione, they had learnt it last year.

Harry felt relieved after class.

"It is not exactly the same," he said. "During our fifth year at Hogwarts, we have both the Charms teacher and Transfiguration teacher teaching at the same time. I think this one is better."

"Suit yourself, Harry," said Hermione, smiling.

On the following morning, Harry and Hermione had Herbology first, they took out their maps, and found the greenhouse that they were supposed to go to.

As soon as they entered the greenhouse, most of the other students have already entered, a moment later, a few more arrived.

Harry and Hermione they saw a man with black hair standing by the students, apparently he looked quite young.

"Let's start now," he said. "To those of you who don't know me, my name is Professor Marcel Holmes."

He started to lecture the importance of OWLs, just like the other teachers did.

Unlike the first Herbology lesson in Harry's fifth year at Hogwarts, he no longer feel worried about his OWLs, since he had been studying before.

Professor Marcel gave the students another essay at the end of the class, but he said that it will be due after a week.

After Harry and Hermione walked out of the greenhouse, Harry was very impressed with the lesson.

"It would be best if you can do it earlier anyway, Harry," said Hermione.

"I'll do it as soon as possible, there's still other homework that I need to do," said Harry.

"In this case, maybe you can do it as soon as you are finished with all others," said Hermione encouragingly.

Harry smiled.

Then he and Hermione had a period off, proceeded by Defense Against the Dark Arts, and then break, then Potions. Unlike the time that he was in Hogwarts, he is now looking forward to those two subjects.

/Scene Break/

Meanwhile, the Dursleys woke up, and found themselves in a place where they had never been before. They were standing on a very dirty footpath, full of mud and leaves. There were trees planted nearby, with some sort of frult that they had never seen before.

"Where are we?" asked Petunia.

"Maybe we are just dreaming," said Vernon.

Then Dudley woke up.

After that, a man arrived.

"Excuse me, where are we?" asked Vernon.

"You are in a very mysterious place," the man said. "This place hardly have food and water."

"What is your name?" asked Vernon.

"Anakin Jones," the man said.

"How do we get out of this place?" asked Vernon.

"See the sea over there?" Anakin asked, pointing his finger to his left.

Vernon turned to the sea, and he asked:

"How are we going to get back to Number 4, Privet Drive?"

"What country is it in?" Anakin asked.

"UK," said Vernon.

"This place is very far from UK, and we do not have any trains or planes," said Anakin. "There's no boats either. Besides, the sea water in here cannot substitute drinking water, it is much more salty and bitter than the sea water you see in other countries."

"What is the name of this place?" asked Vernon.

"I can tell you, but I am sure you won't like it, this place is known as _Destruction Country,_" said Anakin.

Vernon sighed.

"Are we going to die in this country?" he asked.

"Most likely," replied Anakin. "Don't think the fruit on the tree are safe to eat, all of them contains a certain type of poison, and most of the poison tends to lead to death. Additionally, some of them are not really edible anyway."

Petunia looked at the tree, and saw the fruits, they were glowing, and they looked good.

"Most of these fruits have unpleasant tastes," Anakin said.

"How did you survive here?" asked Vernon.

"I have loads of food stored in my storeroom, but don't think I am going to give them to you," Anakin said coldly. "Even if you know where the food is, you can't get them yourself, as only I am capable of opening the place where the food is stored."

Petunia and Vernon both gasped.

"Now you know what it was like to starve someone else and not giving them enough food, since you have done it, you shall be treated like this," Anakin said. "Don't think I don't know what you have done over the years."

"We need food, we are starving," Petunia pleaded.

"How many times do I have to tell you this, I am not going to give any food to you," Anakin said bluntly, "no matter how hungry you are."

/Scene Break/

As soon as Harry and Hermione went to their Defense Against the Dark Arts class, Professor Reamy said:

"Good day everyone, today, we will be learning a spell known as Hauling Spell."

Professor Reamy paused, and then he said:

"Hauling Spell will cause someone to feel that something is seizing them and lift them into the air. The incantation is _Haltio_."

Everyone looked at Professor Reamy in astonishment.

"Now it is time for you to divide into pairs," he said.

The students got to their feet, Harry was again paired with Hermione.

It turned out that no one was frustrated with this spell. One hour later, Professor Reamy let everyone trying this spell on their partner, to see how they are doing. He saw a few students struggling to do this spell properly, and some of them are not using the correct movement.

Soon, it was Harry and Hermione's turn, and Professor Reamy was amazed that they can perform this spell so well on each other, and this caused them to earn ten points each.

"Potter, Granger, excellent," he said.

Then he continued to let others demonstrate this spell, to see if they had mastered it.

At the end of the class, Professor Reamy was pleased that everyone has mastered it, he gave them ten points each, and he gave Harry and Hermione another five points each for mastering it in the first place.

"This was a very good lesson, wasn't it?" asked Harry.

"Yes, Professor Reamy is no difference than Professor Lupin," said Hermione.

/Scene Break/

A week passed, Harry and Hermione began to look at each other in a different way, and Harry felt that Hermione may become his future partner. He remembered the time that Hermione kissed him before he went back to the Dursleys after his fourth year at Hogwarts.

"This school is much better than Hogwarts," Harry said. "I know I have lost some friends from the past, but now, I have much more friends, compared to the friends I had in Hogwarts."

Hermione nodded.

"Not just that, all the teachers in this school are quite caring and responsible," she said. "This suits us best. We never have to worry about unfair punishments from any one of them."

Harry nodded.

They made their way to the school grounds, and started to chat with Elijah and others.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

**New Educational Decrees**

Disclaimer: Everything in Harry Potter universe belongs to J.K. Rowling. I got nothing out of this except for enjoyment.

Cornelius Fudge was sleeping in his home, as he was really exhausted after he had arrived back from the Ministry.

As he was in a dream, there was a loud bang that woke him up, and then there was the noises of people breaking in.

Before Fudge could react, several men appeared, and they pulled out their wands, and pointed at him.

Fudge recognised one of them was Walden Macneir, and he also recognised Lucius Malfoy.

"What do you think you are doing?" he screamed. "Breaking into the house of the Minister of magic!"

"_Petrificus Totalus!_" several men screamed, and Fudge's body snapped together, and fell down.

As he was being gathered up, he saw Voldemort leading the group out of his manor.

And then one of the men shot a spell at Fudge, and Fudge knew no more.

/Scene Break/

As soon as Fudge woke up and felt that he could move again, he found himself tied up, at Malfoy Manor.

"Morning Minister," said Lucius Malfoy.

"Why am I here?" asked Fudge.

He glanced around, and found Walden Macneir, Antonin Dolohov, and some other Death Eaters, some of them sneered.

Then Voldemort arrived.

Fudge felt a surge of hatred as soon as he saw Voldemort, and he now realised that Lucius Malfoy must be on Voldemort's side.

"I have seen your weakness, Cornelius Fudge. I have the perfect chance to snatch you out," Voldemort said arrogantly.

"What are you going to do?" asked Fudge, he was shuddering.

"Bring me the other hostage," Voldemort told one of his Death Eaters.

The Death Eater nodded, and he brought in another man.

Fudge recognised that it was one of his bodyguards.

"Dawlish," he said.

"_Crucio!_" Lucius said, pointing his wand at Dawlish.

Dawlish screamed.

"You will pay for this, Malfoy!" shouted Fudge. "This is the Unforgivable Curse!"

He didn't know what have made him say it, concerning of how scared and angry he is, that Lucius Malfoy would dare trying to use an Unforgivable Curse right in front of him, on his bodyguard.

Voldemort pointed his wand at Fudge, then Fudge was silenced.

Lucius Malfoy laughed, and then he stopped.

"Save your mouth, Cornelius," said Voldemort. "You are now at my mercy."

The Death Eaters all laughed.

"You think," sneered Bellatrix. "You think that you are going to be a match against us, do you?"

Fudge did not answer, he looked at Voldemort with a terrified expression, and he became very, very angry.

Right now he had to admit the truth, that Voldemort is back to power. Nevertheless, although he regretted not believing Harry Potter about Voldemort's return, it was too late, too late to do anything. He was now at Voldemort's mercy.

He wondered how the Wizarding public would react after they realised about Voldemort's return.

/Scene Break/

Amelia Bones was worried, she had no idea what happened to Cornelius Fudge. He hadn't been seen for several days now. She did not know what happened to him.

Nevertheless, there's no way that she's going to keep this quiet, since it was a very serious thing that Fudge, the Minister of Magic, had disappeared. She was sure that the rest of the people who are working in the Ministry are not going to be pleased to hear this news about Fudge's disappearance, panic and fear would be upon them.

She also had no idea who will be disappearing next.

She decided to wait for a few days and see if the Minister will get back to the Ministry of Magic.

/Scene Break/

On the following morning, the latest edition of the Daily Prophet arrived at Hogwarts.

**Cornelius Fudge Missing**

_The Minister of Magic, Cornelius Fudge has not been seen for several days, no one has any idea what has really happened to him._

_Some people reckon that Harry Potter wanted to avenge the Minister of Magic, and so he must have used some ways to become invisible, maybe he killed Cornelius, or at least holding him captive._

"This is sickening," Susan said to Ernie and Justin. "Harry can't be doing such a thing like that."

"Harry wouldn't be doing something like that," said Ernie.

Just then, Hannah Abbot arrived.

"What are you three talking about?" she asked.

Ernie gave Hannah the Daily Prophet.

"Harry can't be the one who's doing this," Hannah said, after she read the Daily Prophet.

"It must have been You-Know-Who," Ernie said. "I know that he is back, and with the disappearance of Harry, as soon as the truth unfolds, this is going to be a real disaster for the Wizarding world. Since the Minister had denied You-Know-Who's return, this is the perfect opportunity for him to kidnap the Minister and kill him. The Minister wouldn't stand a chance against him."

Susan and Hannah nodded.

/Scene Break/

Voldemort looked at the latest Daily Prophet, and he laughed again.

"This suited me well," he said, looking at Cornelius. "I, Lord Voldemort, previously known as Tom Marvolo Riddle, is here, and you won't live another hour."

He approached Cornelius, and said:

"Your fear has fulfilled my plan, and your fondness of power has fulfilled my wish, the Ministry shall be mine very soon."

Cornelius looked at Voldemort with abomination, he was extremely furious about Voldemort's statement, but he couldn't do anything now. He didn't know what will happen if Voldemort and the Death Eaters take over the Ministry, surely they will finish him off first, and the Wizarding world will turn dark. Whether the Daily Prophet admits Voldemort's return or not would no longer be a laughing matter after all this had happened.

"You pathetic!" he shouted, although his heart was panicking. "You will do no such thing! It is not up to you to overrule the Ministry!"

Although he said it, he knew that his statement would not be much help.

"_Avada Kedavra!_" Voldemort shouted, pointing his wand at Dawlish.

A jet of green light streaked from Voldemort's wand, and hit Dawlish, Dawlish fell down to the ground, dead.

"You will pay for killing my bodyguard!" Fudge shouted in fear.

"_Silencio!_" Macnair shouted, pointing his wand at Fudge.

"That will do, Macnair," Voldemort said quietly.

He pointed his wand at Fudge again.

"_Crucio!_"

Fudge screamed, and after a few moments, the curse was released.

"How does that feel?" Voldemort asked.

Fudge was about to tell Voldemort that he had used Unforgivable Curse on him, but that would be no help, he knew being the Minister of Magic doesn't mean that he is magically powerful than Voldemort.

"I have more power than you do, Cornelius," Voldemort said. "This is my time to finish you off."

"_Avada Kedavra!_" Voldemort shouted, pointing at Fudge.

A jet of green light streaked from Voldemort's wand, and hit Fudge.

Fudge collapsed to the ground, motionless.

"Lucius, the position of the Minister of Magic is yours now," Voldemort said.

The Death Eaters laughed and cheered.

/Scene Break/

The people in the Wizarding public started to panic after they received the Daily Prophet about Minister Fudge's disappearance. They had no idea about who is going to be the new Minister of Magic, and little did they know that the dark side was about to take over the Wizarding world.

/Scene Break/

One week later, another Educational Decree arrived in Hogwarts.

**Educational Decree Number Twenty Six**

**BY THE ORDER OF HIGN INQUISITOR AT HOGWARTS**

_The staff members of Hogwarts (including the Headmaster) are not permitted to have power over the Hogwarts High Inquisitor._

_If any staff members of Hogwarts tries to exercise any power over the Hogwarts High Inquisitor, they will be sacked from Hogwarts._

_Signed: Lucius Malfoy, Minister of Magic_

Dean sighed.

"We will just have to stay with it," said Seamus.

Then he and the others went out to the grounds.

After that, Professor McGonagall came down, and she saw the Educational Decree as well.

She sighed, and she quickly went to the Headmaster's office.

"To what do I owe this pleasure, Minerva?" asked Dumbledore.

"Well, there's an Educational Decree against you right now," said Minerva.

"Like what?" asked Dumbledore.

"It said that you are not allowed to have power over Umbridge," said Minerva.

"And what if I do?" asked Dumbledore.

"You will be sacked," said Minerva. "I don't know how long I can put up with this."

"If Cornelius signed it, there's nothing I can do," said Dumbledore.

"It was signed by Lucius Malfoy," said Minerva.

Dumbledore was shocked.

"It appears that he is the Minister of Magic right now," said Minerva.

Dumbledore sighed deeply.

"Let's go and have a look," he said.

As soon as they arrived at the Great Hall, Dumbledore's jaw dropped as he saw the Educational Decree.

"I don't know if I should put a stop on this or not," he said.

"You can't rule over the Ministry of Magic," said Minerva.

"I know," said Dumbledore. "I wondered if Harry has received his letter or not."

"What letter?" asked Minerva.

"The letter that I sent him in December," said Dumbledore.

"Did his name disappear from the list of the enrolled students?" asked Minerva, she asked this question since she suspected that Harry and Hermione may have chosen to go and study in another magical school.

"Not only his, Miss Hermione Granger's name has also disappeared," replied Dumbledore, nodding.

Minerva felt sick.

"Another Wizarding school must have accepted them," she said.

"Incredible," said Dumbledore.

He sighed again.

"What is it to you that they have left?" asked Professor McGonagall.

"I need Harry," said Dumbledore.

Professor McGonagall was feeling shocked and angry.

"Do you know what the Daily Prophet had said about him?" she asked.

"Just because he has to put up with pain doesn't mean he should leave this place," said Dumbledore.

"Why do you need Harry?" asked Professor McGonagall.

"There would be no hope for the Wizarding world of Britain without him," said Dumbledore.

"Let me make this clear, the Ministry had denied Voldemort's return, and they have been calling Harry a liar. The Daily Prophet has also been having snide remarks about Harry," said Professor McGonagall, "and now, do you still want him to stay here while this country is in great danger? Why don't you go and save the Wizarding world? You are a lot older than him, and you have more experience than him, and you are no doubt more powerful than him!"

Dumbledore fell silent.

"I am not capable of doing it," he said.

"Then why do you expect Harry to do it?" asked Professor McGonagall.

/Scene Break/

Dumbledore went back to his office as soon as he finished his conversation with Professor McGonagall.

He did some thinking.

He had to write Harry another letter, to get him back, or else Voldemort could never be defeated.

A few hours later, he received a note from Arthur Weasley saying that Conelius Fudge was killed. This shocked him. He had to act fast.

He pulled out a quill, and a piece of parchment, and he wrote.

_Dear Harry_

_I believed that you have already received the last letter I sent you, it is apparent that you did not reply to it._

_You don't know what state the Wizarding Britain is in right now. Cornelius Fudge has been killed, and Lucius Malfoy was chosen as the Minister of Magic. I don't know what I should do since another Educational Decree just arrived at Hogwarts, and it is against me._

_I desperately need you to come back, Harry, if you don't come back, Voldemort will probably reign. There's no doubt that he and the Death Eaters are already in control of the Ministry._

_Regards_

_Albus Dumbledore, Headmaster of Hogwarts_

/Scene Break/

Harry and Hermione had a wonderful time in Strectoll, and Harry was happier, that Hermione was always with him. He thought back of what happened in the past, during his fourth year, that when no one (not even Ron) was speaking to him, Hermione had stood by him. And now, their friendship had developed further. Harry no longer sees Ron as his best friend, and he felt that it doesn't matter if Ron never turn up again in front of him.

As he and Hermione was wandering around in the school grounds, another letter flew into his hand.

It said: _To Harry Potter_

Harry ripped the envelope open, and he started to read.

After he finished reading the letter, an angry expression appeared on his face.

"Not that again!" he said grumpily. "It serves Fudge right for refusing to believe Voldemort's return, and refusing to take the appropriate actions, Voldemort would no doubt take his chance to finish him off."

"I know what you mean, Harry," said Hermione. "Same thing goes for me."

Harry chucked the letter aside.

"There's no reason for me to write back," he said. "Even if Dumbledore is going to look for me, he won't be able to reach me."

/Scene Break/

On the following morning, another Educational Decree arrived at Hogwarts.

**Educational Decree Number Twenty Seven**

**BY THE ORDER OF THE HIGH INQUISITOR OF HOGWARTS**

_All Muggleborn students must not come back to Hogwarts by this September, or else they shall be arrested._

_Signed: Lucius Malfoy, Minister of Magic._

"They can't do this," said Colin Creevey.

"Yeah, and I am only in my second year right now," said Dennis Creevey.

During break time, Justin-Finch Fletchley saw the Educational Decree Number Twenty Seven, and he was frustrated too.

"This is ridiculous," he said to his friend, Ernie.

Ernie nodded.

"Yes, and I don't think our life will get any better if we stay here," he said. "Lucius Malfoy, the Minister of Magic, how would someone like him make the Wizarding world better when he come up with the decision to ban Muggleborns from this school?"

Justin nodded in agreement.

When Draco Malfoy and Pansy Parkinson saw the Educational Decree Number Twenty Seven, they laughed.

"I am going to see what happens to those Mudbloods," Draco sneered. "Father is the Minister, and now I bet that no one would stand a chance against him. Thanks to Fudge for choosing Umbridge as the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, and appointing her as Hogwarts High Inquisitor. I am looking forward to the day for Dumbledore to be thrown out of Hogwarts."

Pansy giggled.

As soon as Ron and Ginny saw the Educational Decree Number Twenty Seven, they were frustrated, and they felt that they are going to collapse soon.

"Maybe the Blood Traitors will be next!" Ron said angrily.

He was extremely infuriated between the fact of Fudge's refusal to believe Voldemort's return, and the fact that Lucius Malfoy took over his place, and banning Muggleborns from Hogwarts.

Ginny nodded.

"Most probable," she said, gazing at Ron in a rather hopeless expression.

/Scene Break/

Everyone in the Order of the Phoenix was foiled, and there was no time of respite for any of them. The disappearance of Harry Potter had really caused them to wonder what will happen to the Wizarding world, given the fact that it is dark right now.

Remus and Sirius were not impressed. They sat down in Grimmuald Place, and they couldn't figure out where Harry had gone.

"What do you think we should do, Sirius?" asked Remus.

"Apparently Voldemort has played a very clever game, taking the chance to get hold of the Ministry when Fudge denied his return," said Sirius. "I am wondering what will Dumbledore do next."

"It is already too late to do anything," said Remus.

Before anyone could say anything else, Dumbledore appeared.

"Albus, what brings you here?" asked Remus.

"Remus," said Dumbledore. "I have lost my jobs now, first, the Chief Warlock of Wizengamot, and the Supreme Mugwump, and now, it appears that my job as Headmaster of Hogwarts is in real danger."

Remus looked worried.

"Have you seen the Daily Prophet lately?" he asked.

"As a matter of fact, I have," said Dumbledore. "Besides, the Minister is dead now, according to Arthur, or else if Fudge is alive, Lucius Malfoy can't be the Minister of Magic."

Remus slapped his hand on the table as hard as he could, and a furious expression appeared on his face.

Everyone else, meanwhile, was wondering what he will say or do next.

"This is not something that is pleasant to hear!" he said firmly. "Harry Potter is missing, and now people are suspecting that he is the one who had killed the Minister of Magic!"

"I don't think he would dare do such a thing," said Dumbledore quietly.

"I don't believe the Daily Prophet either," said Remus.

/Scene Break/

Voldemort and several Death Eaters appeared in a Muggle street, and started to create fires around several residences.

"Fire, fire!" several people screamed, running out of their homes.

Someone took out a cellphone and called the fire engine.

Soon, people from the residences that had fire began to ran out of their house, and soon, the footpath beside the street had became quite crowded.

Voldemort pulled out his wand, and fired a spell at the crowded people, and an explosion occurred as it hit them, resulting several people being blown up, and some of them were injured.

The Death Eaters advanced, and they fired numerous Killing Curses, resulting several deaths.

Afterwards, the fire engine appeared, and the firefighters jumped out of the engine, holding their equipments aloft, ready to extinguish the fire.

A Death Eater shot a spell at the fire engine, causing it to explode, and then he killed the firefighters before the fire could be completely extinguished.

Ten minutes later, they apparated away, and they found themselves near a bridge.

"Let's take out the bridge," one Death Eater suggested.

Voldemort nodded.

Together, he and the Death Eaters disillusioned themselves, and shot spells at the bridge, and soon, the bridge fell, and the people who were on it fell into the lake.

And then they disapparated, before the police could arrive.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

**The Departure of Fred and George**

Disclaimer: Everything in Harry Potter universe belongs to J.K. Rowling. I got nothing out of this except for enjoyment.

Ron was feeling really bad, he hated Umbridge, but he was not seventeen yet, and if he chose to leave Hogwarts now, he won't be able to look after himself. He did not believe that his parents would send him elsewhere to study if he decided to drop out of Hogwarts, and certainly not the Muggle world.

The Educational Decrees inside Hogwarts had been quite nasty, it had even gone to the point of banning Muggleborns from Hogwarts.

More importantly, without Harry and Hermione, his grade had been quite bitter. The professors frequently criticised his work, and Snape's attitude towards him was as unpleasant as ever. Often, he failed to complete his homework on time, and thus he received a Poor result, or worse.

He wished that Hermione was still here, so that his grade would be better.

But he didn't really think that it would be wise to use her disappearance as an excuse in front of the professors for getting bad grades and failing to complete his homework on time, since he knew that the professors would discover that the fact that he managed to get his work done in the past was because she helped him, or urged him to do it, and the consequences of that would certainly not be good, he would end up being demoted, and maybe expelled, and his parents would not be impressed about it.

Getting along with others did not help him much in his studies.

He didn't know why Dumbledore still wanted to keep Snape in Hogwarts. He didn't trust Snape at all, as he knew that Snape was biased.

Every time he and Draco Malfoy met, Draco sneered at him, and he often provoked him.

/Scene Break/

Fred and George were both dismayed as soon as they saw the Educational Decree that banning Muggleborns from returning to school on the following school year.

"This is outrageous," said George.

"Yeah," said Fred. "I don't know what will happen to the Wizarding world if this educational decree stays in this school forever."

"This is our final year, anyway," said George.

"What's the point of staying in this horrid structure?" said Fred. "The Death Eaters are in control of the Ministry right now, and I don't know how many people are going to stand up against Lucius Malfoy."

"We should seriously consider leaving Hogwarts," agreed George.

Fred nodded.

/Scene Break/

Umbridge and the Slytherins were being pranked by Fred and George several times a week, along with Lee Jordan.

They also pranked several Slytherins several times a week using their products. The Slytherins have vomited, fainted, developed dangerous fevers and nosebleed, some of them ended up on being absent from their classes for a day or so.

Lee had dropped Dungbombs and Stink Pellets frequently at the door of Umbridge's office, this caused Umbridge to become frustrated, and she was determined to find out who did it. Filch was not happy about this either as he had to clean up the smelly odors.

Dumbledore was not very happy about the pranks, but he could do nothing about it. Hogwarts was now in a real mess, a real unexpected mess that requires serious cleanup. Despite the fact that Fred and George had pranked the Slytherins, the real mess was caused by Voldemort and his Death Eaters, and it was apparent that they had used the Ministry's denial that Voldemort was back to power.

Harry's escape had granted a chance for the Death Eaters to take over the Wizarding world, and now, on any day, there would be incidents of Wizards being attacked, and killed. The damage would be as severe as ever.

Not only Harry had not been found, he had not received Harry's reply. He did not know whether Harry was angry with him, or had complaints about him but didn't want to disclose it to anyone. He felt that Harry had started to lose confidence in him, and the rest of the Order of the Phoenix. And worse yet, he still hadn't told Harry about the prophecy.

Dumbledore wondered which school Harry and Hermione had gone to.

While it may be true that Harry and Hermione would do better in another school, and be happy, Harry's destiny was more important than happiness. How dare he depart with a desire of seeking happiness elsewhere while allowing the Wizarding Britain to go in an injustice entanglement that requires serious cleanup that only he could do?

He knew that his position as the Headmaster of Hogwarts would soon turn into a distant history, it would soon be over, and this would make things go even worse. He was sure that Lucius Malfoy would go into any lengths of sacking him, and he knew that Umbridge would be taking over his position after that. He wondered how many more Educational Decrees the Ministry was going to bring in to Hogwarts after he had been sacked, and he knew, though he doesn't like it, that after he had been sacked, Hogwarts would turn into a Ministry controlled, prejudiced, bigoted school, and he wondered what lesson will be taught to the Hogwarts students after this happens. Dark Arts? No doubt.

If only Harry had persevered, and stayed in Hogwarts, the state of the Wizarding Britain would not be as bad as it is now. After all, Harry was the only one who saw Voldemort coming back, and as soon as the Minister had been convinced that Voldemort is back, his position of Supreme Mugwump and Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot would be reversed, and Hogwarts would be back in his control, Umbridge would be removed from the school, and his position as Headmaster of Hogwarts would still be secure.

He did not believe that Fred and George's pranks are going to be useful in cleaning up these mess that had been caused by the Death Eaters, since it does nothing more than pranking, although it did, in some cases, have some not so good effects towards people.

Harry's disappearance from Hogwarts had already been a real issue, not only he turned away from his destiny, by now, he was unreachable.

The fact that Cornelius had been killed was certainly no good news. He knew that the Minister's unbelief of Voldemort's return had landed him inside the pit, a pit that was not escapable.

He wondered who was going to oppose the new Minister of Magic, Lucius Malfoy, while there may be people who would, the people in the Order of the Phoenix would certainly be against him, but he needed Harry to get rid of Voldemort, to redeem the Death Eaters, for the Greater Good.

Professor McGonagall did not intervene much about Fred and George's prank on others, since she hated Umbridge herself. She knew that, soon enough, the Muggleborns would no longer be coming back. She frequently saw Muggleborns chatting with each other, and decided what to do next.

The last two Educational Decrees, especially the one against Muggleborns made her feel sick and tired, she did not know if she should stand against Umbridge, or side with her, and she could not help with the fact that the Ministry was now in the control of the Death Eaters.

Severus Snape, on the other hand, felt that he should take this chance and join the Death Eaters. Yes, to him this was the perfect chance to join them, although it would mean that the Order of the Phoenix would lose confidence in him.

Professor Sprout was worried, she never imagined tha the Wizarding world would go into this state. She had no idea whether she should stand against the Death Eaters, or surrender and support them.

Like Professor Sprout, Professor Filtwick also felt bad about the Wizarding world right now. He did not know if Dumbledore could do anything to clean up this mess. The fact that the Ministry was in the hands of the Death Eaters was sickening to think about.

/Scene Break/

Percy Weasley had nowhere to go, although he sided with the Ministry, the Daily Prophet had acted against him even more, since he was a blood traitor.

Right now, Fudge was nowhere to be seen, and the new Minister was against his family.

Having no choice, he quickly apologized to Arthur, and Arthur had forgiven him.

Bill, on the other hand, wasn't impressed. The news that the Death Eaters had taken over the Ministry had depressed him greatly. He was relieved that Charlie is not at home, otherwise Charlie would also be quite upset about the state of the Wizarding world.

He knew it would be very risky to send Charlie a letter, since the owls are being intercepted.

He decided to contact Dumbledore, asking him to send Charlie a letter, telling him to go back to the Burrow, so they could talk face to face.

/Scene Break/

Fred and George remembered that Harry had given them his Tri-Wizard winnings, and since they felt they did not need NEWTs, they decided to depart from Hogwarts.

With their lifelong Quidditch ban, they felt that the best thing to do is to leave Hogwarts, since they were going to start a business, they felt that the NEWTs were no doubt a waste of time, in fact, why on earth would they even need to stay in school now? Umbridge's class was just as useless as it had been before.

They would miss the DA meetings, of course, but it didn't really matter, others could carry on attending, and whether Umbridge find out about it or not would no longer be their business anymore.

They knew that their mother would not be impressed if they plan to leave Hogwarts, but they knew that it was their decision to make, not their mother's decision, since they were already seventeen, there's no way for their mother to stop them from doing it.

Having considered their plan to start a joke shop, they decided to take action as soon as possible.

On the following morning, as soon as everyone deserted the Great Hall after breakfast, they summoned their broomsticks, and flew out of Hogwarts.

/Scene Break/

Ron and Ginny were neither happy, nor sad about the disappearance of Fred and George.

"It seems that Fred and George are gone," said Ron.

"Yeah, they didn't appear in meal times," agreed Ginny.

Ron realised what Fred and George wanted to do, they probably wanted to set up a joke shop, but with Voldemort in control of the Ministry, he was sure that his family were going to be targeted, since everyone in his family were blood-traitors. All in all, he was not confident that Fred and George would be able to set up their business without interference.

During the evening, they saw Lee Jordan approaching them.

"Have you seen Fred and George anywhere?" Lee asked.

"Did they turn up in class?" asked Ron.

Lee shook his head slowly.

"I didn't see them in meal times, either," said Ginny. "They must have left Hogwarts."

"Don't know where they are now, though," said Ron. "I don't think they will be going back to the Burrow since mum may not be pleased about the fact that they have decided to leave Hogwarts."

"Ron, why would your mother want them to complete their education when the Wizarding world is in this state?" asked Lee.

Ron fell silent, he felt what Lee had just told him made sense.

/Scene Break/

Day after day, deaths, disappearances and injuries within the Wizarding world increased, some people were kissed by the Dementors, and a few of them were being subjected to the Cruciatus Curse.

Additionally, some of the Wizarding homes were attacked, and burnt down by the Death Eaters.

The survivors had no choice but to admit that Voldemort was back to power, but now, it was too late to do anything. Some of the survivors were crying over their losses.

Some people wondered why the news that Voldemort was back wasn't printed on the Daily Prophet earlier, although the reason had been quite apparent.

The Ministry of Magic was being constantly informed about these incidents, even so, the Minister not only did nothing about it, he also encouraged it to continue to happen.

/Scene Break/

One night, when Harry was asleep, he met his parents again.

"We've done it, the Dursleys had been starved to death in the Destruction Country," Lily said.

"And the Wizarding Britain is now really messed up," James said. "I am not going to ask you to clean up this mess, because I know that you are not capable of doing it."

"I am going to make sure that Dumbledore's plan will not be accomplished, since I know that his plan is lousy," said Lily.

And then they vanished.


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

**Dumbledore Dismissed**

Disclaimer: Everything in Harry Potter universe belongs to J.K. Rowling. I got nothing out of this except for enjoyment.

A few months passed, and the atmosphere was tense within the Wizarding world in Britain.

The Order of the Phoenix was in a serious quandary, they are the only ones left to fight Voldemort's supporters.

The Daily Prophet had already been turning against Harry, and some people in the Order was sure that it would turn against Dumbledore next, and with this, Dumbledore would be sacked from Hogwarts.

Sirius's name had still not been cleared, and as a result he knew it would be impossible to escape. He knew that Voldemort was back, and he knew that Cornelius Fudge had already been murdered.

Remus tried to comfort him, but it didn't really cheer him up.

Neither Arthur nor Molly laughed, they had no idea what will happen next.

Dedalus Diggle and Hestia Jones were worried, too, but they knew that it was too late to repair the damage.

"Maybe we should leave Britain," said Dedalus.

"I think we should," agreed Hestia. "The Wizarding Britain is like hell to us right now."

"We can't all escape," said Alastor Moody. "Some of us will have to remain here."

/Scene Break/

Harry felt that Strectoll was, indeed, much better than Hogwarts. There were no prejudices, and no biased teachers, and pretty much no bullying, it seemed to be perfect for him.

With Professor Brown's teaching methods, Harry finally made some improvement in his potions subject. Professor Brown had never been hesitating to help anyone who needed it.

He knew that Dumbledore must be hiding something from him about Snape. He also knew that Snape would probably not help him when he needed it, and instead, he may end up on knocking points off him, and maybe even give him detention or so.

Also, in Strectoll, History of Magic was no longer a boring subject to him, although it was still not as interesting as his other subjects were.

He also had a very big group of friends, indeed, he was relieved that several teams lived together in one common room, this had given him chances to know more people. There were no divisions in this school.

He didn't really consider what had really happened in the Wizarding Britain, since he didn't really care much about it anymore, whether the Wizarding Britain go dark or not was no longer his business. If the Wizarding Britain goes dark, let it be. If Voldemort had taken over the Ministry of Magic, let it be. If people started to disappear from Britain, let it be, and if any deaths occurred, let it be, since he knew that he was not responsible for any of that.

He didn't care whether or not any more Educational Decrees had been introduced to Hogwarts, either, it was no longer his business. He knew that the Educational Decrees would have suited Voldemort just fine.

He knew that the prophecy would probably not be fully fulfilled if he go on like this, but he didn't care, in fact, there's no reason for him to defeat Voldemort, since he escaped Voldemort by luck, not by skill.

He didn't have any idea whether or not Dumbledore would be looking for him, but he didn't care about this either, because it would be no way for Dumbledore to reach USA since his parents had protected it using Metaphysical Magic, which was much more powerful than the magic in the Wizarding world, and the Metaphysical enchantments updates itself frequently to prevent new spells from breaking it, even the most powerful, deadly spells in the Wizarding world, (including newly created spells) would not be capable of breaking through Metaphysical enchantments. Ideally, Metaphysical enchantments not only prevents apparition, including house elf apparition, it also prevent portkey transportation, and manual transportation. It had abilities to identify unwelcome and disguised people, and stops any sort of unwelcome animingus from entering, while it allows tourists, immigrants, and other people to enter, using any transportation methods without knowing that it was there by adding them to the whitelist.

This layer of security made him confident of his safety in the USA, that he didn't even need to worry about the Death Eaters.

He studied diligently with Hermione, not wanting to fail any of his Ordinary Wizarding Level subjects.

If Ron had came with them, he would have been goofing off with him, and Ron may end up on attempting to drag him away from studying, although he could resist the temptation of not studying. Lately, he felt much more confident when he was around Hermione, given the fact that only she was with him now, and he was free from Dumbledore's influence.

It would be quite possible that Rita Skeeter's article about him and Hermione in his fourth year to turn out to be an undeniable truth. After all, they were the only two former Hogwarts students who attended Strectoll, and they would be inseparable.

/Scene Break/

Soon, Easter arrived, for the students of Hogwarts, they would normally be revising for their exams, for the students in Strectoll, it was merely a time of relaxation.

Harry and Hermione relaxed for a while under the tree.

They looked at each other.

"Relax Harry," Hermione said. "Remember that this is not Hogwarts."

"I know," said Harry.

"We have plenty of time to do revision, Harry, and you have been working quite hard since you started this school," Hermione said. "I have been asking around, and I was told that the exams in this school usually takes place between October and November."

"I think this school is better," said Harry. "although I have to say that this school's holiday length is shorter than the holiday length of Hogwarts, and we rest on public holidays, which is already enough for us."

"Yeah, this school is much better than Hogwarts," said Hermione.

Hessie and Owen arrived, and they sat beside Harry and Hermione.

"Do you like this school, Harry?" asked Hessie.

"I do," said Harry. "The teachers are very supportive towards the student, and there's no prejudice, and no biased teachers."

"Students wouldn't be feeling welcome inside a school that contains prejudice, and biased teachers," Hessie said at once. "If a teacher is unfairly prejudiced and show favouritism towards certain students only, that would make other students feel unwelcome, and they may complain. If a teacher need to discipline someone, they must do it fairly. If a teacher shows favouritism towards certain students only, it would be very unfair."

"There are teacher like this in Hogwarts," said Harry, remembering Snape.

"Then don't go back there again," said Hessie, she didn't want to ask Harry who he was referring to.

"And not to mention that the Headmaster of Hogwarts has put trust in a teacher who is biased," said Hermione. "He never did anything to deal with the unjust judgement of that teacher."

"Then that means the Headmaster of Hogwarts is not quite competent," said Hessie frankly.

/Scene Break/

Ron, meanwhile, continued to struggle with his work at school, his study habits didn't improve much, not to mention that he would not pass his exam. In fact, the exams were only a bit more than a month away from now, and he still did not do any revision.

He had been getting a lot of bad grades from all the teachers, numerous Poor grades, and a handful of Acceptable grades only. None of the teachers were happy about his results. As a result Professor McGonagall wrote to Ron's parents about his bad marks, and Ron ended up on receiving disappointing letters from his parents, and sometimes, he received howlers from them, and this caused other students to laugh at him.

Ron felt both sick and tired every time he received a disappointing letter or howler from his parents, but this did not encourage him to improve his study habits. As the exam week drew nearer, Ron knew that he would most likely not going to get a satisfactory standard, even though his grade had improved slightly.

Also, he discovered that more students had started to distance themselves from him, even his sister, Ginny, was not impressed with the howlers he had received. She mostly avoided him.

_Wait! _Ron thought naively: _Maybe the exams are going to be cancelled, just like my second year, consider how dark the school is right now._

But he knew that exams would not be cancelled every year, and the staff would never consider cancelling the exams in spite of the situation the Wizarding world is in right now. Back in his second year, Professor McGonagall had said that they were still getting exams even though students were being attacked.

/Scene Break/

One week later, Umbridge discovered the organisation, Dumbledore's Army, and this caused the Ministry to boot Dumbledore out of Hogwarts. From that point onwards, Umbridge had replaced Dumbledore's position, under Lucius Malfoy's permission.

"What can we do now?" asked Dean.

"There's nothing we can do," said Seamus.

"The Wizarding world is so wicked right now," said Neville, "even Dumbledore is out of the way."

Ron heard everything they said, but he couldn't do anything about the state of the Wizarding world.

"Who's fault was it that caused the Wizarding Britain to go dark?" he asked.

"The Daily Prophet and the Ministry, I reckon," said Neville. "At least Harry wasn't responsible for that."

"Speaking of which, we can't even learn how to defend ourselves now," Dean grumbled.

Ron sighed.

"I don't think my parents will be pleased about the state of the Wizarding world right now," Dean said.

They had frequently been muttering about the state of the Wizarding Britain, and how unjust Hogwarts had been. They didn't want to complain about this to anyone, or else if it falls into the wrong hands, it would make things worse.

/Scene Break/

Dumbledore landed in Number Twelve, Grimmauld Place, and he breathed heavily. He had lost all his jobs, and he was sure that his positions would not be restored.

"Why are you here, Dumbledore?" asked Bill, who had just entered.

"The Ministry has booted me out of Hogwarts," Dumbledore replied, and then he went on and told Bill the reason for it.

"This means Voldemort will have more opportunity to attack innocent people," said a voice.

Dumbledore looked around, and saw Sirius.

"I know," Dumbledore said. "I need Harry."

He slumped onto a chair, and he blinked a few times. He could not imagine what will happen to the Wizarding world next, since he was sure that more innocent lives will be lost. The fact that Lucius Malfoy had been chosen as the Minister of Magic had already caused a huge, yet undesirable effect to the Wizarding world. With him now being dismissed from Hogwarts, he was sure that more nastier Educational Decrees would be placed there sooner or later, which would make matters worse.

Then Arthur and Molly appeared, and they both stared at Dumbledore, thinking that he came here for the business of the Order.

"Albus, it is a surprise to see you here," Molly said.

She was worried that Dumbledore might mention about Ron's progress in his subjects, and at the moment she had no mood to hear a single thing about Ron's grades, particularly not if his grades had not improved to the standard that she had expected.

"What's the matter?" asked Arthur.

"Dumbledore has been booted out of Hogwarts," said Sirius, "and now he said that he need Harry."

Molly was relieved that Dumbledore didn't mention a thing about Ron, and she felt that it is best to not ask him anything about Ron's grades.

"What impact does Harry's disappearance have on you, Dumbledore?" asked Arthur, although he knew that he had missed Harry, he didn't think Harry's disappearance had anything to do with Dumbledore.

Dumbledore said nothing, as he didn't want to reveal the contents of the prophecy to anyone, particularly not when the Ministry was in the hands of the Death Eaters.

He didn't know how Harry will react to the fact that he had been booted out of Hogwarts by the Ministry of Magic.

He decided to give this a try, and hopefully Harry will go back to Britain, and he would be able to get Harry back under his control.

/Scene Break/

Draco Malfoy, meanwhile, was in the Slytherin common room, he laughed as he saw the Daily Prophet reporting the fact that Dumbledore had been booted out of Hogwarts.

"Sweet isn't it, Draco?" Pansy asked.

"Yes, it is," Draco said, grinning. "This was the thing that I looked forward to, finally, it happened."

The Slytherins who were inside the common room laughed with them.

"Even though the Muggleborns would not be back next year, the Blood Traitors would still remain here," Pansy said.

"Don't worry about this," Draco said. "Our side had already won, and it would be quite less likely for Blood Traitors to attack us and our family, we will show them how powerful we are, and besides, we have the Dark Lord on our side."

/Scene Break/

As soon as the Easter holidays ended, Harry and Hermione started to read more books. They want to cram in a bit more knowledge so that they will be ready when the time comes for them to learn it.

Just then, Fawkes landed on the desk, carrying a letter.

Harry took the letter, opened the envelope, and started to read.

_Dear Harry_

_You need to tell me where you are right now, currently the Ministry has already booted me out of Hogwarts, and with Lucius Malfoy being the Minister of Magic, there can be no doubt that Voldemort will do more damage to the Wizarding world. It is most unlikely for Muggleborns to return to Hogwarts this September._

_If you choose to not return here, the Wizarding Britain will become darker and darker, and if Voldemort reaches Muggles, there is a fifty-fifty chance for the Muggles to win._

_I do not want to allow the Death Eaters to take hold of the Wizarding world, you are the only one who can defeat Voldemort, you need to come back, we need you._

_Regards_

_Albus Dumbledore_

"Not that again!" Harry said.

Hermione glanced at the letter that Dumbledore had sent Harry, her heart was raging. How dare he sending a letter to inform Harry to go back when the Wizarding Britain is in a state of war? How would he expect Harry to deal with Voldemort when Harry was studying for exams?

"That old coot!" she shouted, and then she softened her voice. "Ignore him."

Harry nodded.

"The reason that the Wizarding Britain had gone dark have absolutely nothing to do with me. I am happier here, and I am free here, plus that I am around you, Hermione," he said quietly. "It is entirely Fudge's fault that the Wizarding Britain had turned dark, I am not responsible for any problems that is currently happening in the Wizarding world."

Hermione smiled, and she gave Harry a quick hug, as she knew that he was right, and she was thinking of the same thing.

"There's no point for you to go back to Britain and confront your foes, or dealing with the mess that it is in right now," she advised him.

Harry chucked the letter into the rubbish bin, and continued to read books.


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

**Birthdays**

Disclaimer: Everything in Harry Potter universe belongs to J.K. Rowling. I got nothing out of this except for enjoyment.

Another few months passed, and Harry's birthday arrived.

Harry got up from his bed, and walked to the common room.

Hermione was there.

"Hello Harry, Happy Birthday," she said.

"Thanks, Hermione," said Harry.

They went down to breakfast.

The day passed quite quickly, and Harry had received numerous greetings from other students.

During dinner time, Harry received a package from Professor Boady.

Harry unwrapped the parcel, and he was stunned.

It was a pensieve.

"Wow," he said. "I can store some memory inside now."

Then he paid attention to the words on the package of the pensieve.

"It can only store thirty minutes of memories," he said. "But it is already enough, I daresay."

And then he felt that he was ready to say something to Hermione, but he didn't want to say it, at least not in front of everyone else. This could still wait.

/Scene Break/

Just as Ron had predicted, his results were, indeed, very poor. He gained only an 'Acceptable' in Transfiguration and Charms, and Herbology. He failed History of Magic, which he didn't really mind, and he didn't manage to pass Divination.

He didn't get a pleasant grade in Defense Against the Dark Arts and Potions either, just like his Transfiguration and Charms mark, he only gained an 'Acceptable' for both of these subjects.

He also failed Astronomy.

The only subject he managed to pass with an Exceeds Expectations is Care of Magical Creatures.

His parents were not pleased with his results at all.

"I have never imagined that you would get poor exam results, Ronald," Molly said firmly, disappointed. "Compared to the OWLs that Fred and George have got, you have more OWLs than either one of them, but your marks are worse than theirs. Wait until your father hears about this!"

"What?" asked Bill.

He took Ron's results, and looked over it.

He shook his head.

And then Fred and George arrived, only they saw Ron didn't speak.

"What's the matter, Ron?" asked Fred.

Ron didn't answer, he knew that Fred and George would laugh at him if he told them that his results were poorer than theirs.

"I'll tell you what had happened," said Bill. "Follow me, you two."

Fred and George followed Bill to his room.

"Ron has received very bad grades," he said in a low voice.

"What?" asked George.

"Worse than ours?" asked Fred.

Bill nodded.

"He probably won't be able to take any subjects for his sixth year except for Care of Magical Creatures," he said. "He passed six OWLs, but five out of the six of them are only Acceptable grades."

Fred and George laughed for a while, and then Arthur Weasley arrived.

"Fred, George, what are you two laughing about?" he asked.

"Ron's grades," Fred said.

"Did he fail?" asked Arthur.

"He only passed six OWLs," said George.

"What's so funny about that?" asked Arthur.

Fred and George both laughed uncontrollably.

"Have some common sense, he got five Acceptable and one Exceeds Expectations," said George.

Arthur fell silent, and a disappointed expression appeared on his face.

"I'll go and have a word with him," he said. "Just stop laughing."

As soon as he found Ron, he said:

"Ronald, I can't believe your grades are worse than Fred and George's, even though you got more OWLs, I recommend you to study harder this time. It would be a shame for me to see you repeating your fifth year again."

Ron nodded.

/Scene Break/

Harry and Hermione worked harder during August, since their exams are only a few months away.

"You should be all right," said Hermione confidently. "You have been studying very, very hard, and I would be surprised if you didn't manage to get at least Exceeds Expectations in all your subjects, given the fact that you have got at least Exceeds Expectations in all your homework."

"You are probably right," said Harry. "But I am aiming for Outstanding."

"Let me have a look at your work," Hermione said.

Harry handed his essay over to her, and watched her scanning his work.

"Your essay is pretty much okay," said Hermione, handing it back to him. "Much better than before, I should say."

At these words, Harry remembered Ron, he remembered that Ron had been copying Hermione's conclusions to complete his homework. He wondered what's happening to Ron right now.

"What's on your mind, Harry?" Hermione asked.

"I just thought about Ron," Harry replied.

"I understand what you mean, Harry, are you saying that Ron had to cope with his work on his own? Well, chances are that he may have already failed," Hermione remarked. "Those excuses that he had made, trying to use me to get him a good mark, I hope he knows the consequences of my absence."

Harry couldn't help thinking what Ron had said: '_We just haven't got your brains or your memory or your concentration – you are cleverer than we are, is it nice to rub it in?_'

He couldn't fully accept Ron's comment, currently, he had Hermione's brains, because he worked hard, and it does not always matter if someone is clever or not, the key was to study hard, and that will enable him to maintain good marks, although he still couldn't get himself to accept Professor Binn's teaching, he could still have at least listened to him, instead of playing hangman with Ron during his first History of Magic lesson.

"What's on your mind Harry?" asked Hermione.

Harry told Hermione his thoughts.

"You will be able to pass your OWLs," Hermione said. "You studied quite hard, and you did quite well yourself, unlike Ron."

/Scene Break/

"Do you have any progress of finding Harry Potter, Severus?" Dumbledore asked as Snape made his appearance. He was waiting for an answer that Harry had been found, and he hope that Snape would say yes.

"No," Snape replied, shaking his head. "I have been trying, but it seems to me that it is impossible to find him."

Dumbledore was disappointed, and then a sickening image surfaced into his mind.

"Don't tell me that Harry is dead," he said in a rather terrified voice.

"Hopefully he won't be," assured Snape, although he said it, he didn't hope that Harry was not dead, since he hated Harry, thus he felt relieved that Harry was no longer at Hogwarts. He hoped that everyone else (apart from the Slytherins) would leave Hogwarts, so it will make him happy.

If Dumbledore could break into Snape's mind, he would not be happy about Snape, thankfully Snape was a highly accomplished Occlumens, that even Dumbledore could not break into his mind.

Dumbledore paused for a moment, and suddenly he smiled.

"I've got an idea," he said.

"Don't get me involved in this, Dumbledore!" Snape pleaded firmly. "Give me some rest!"

"You don't need to be involved in this right now," Dumbledore said. "I'll ask someone else this time."

/Scene Break/

Minerva McGonagall was sitting at her home, thinking about the incidents that had happened over the school year.

The incidents that happened in the Wizarding world over the school year was not pleasant, not pleasant at all. Bad things had been happening one after another; from the time that the Ministry interfered Hogwarts, to the day of the disappearance of Harry Potter and Hermione Granger, and the fact that the Minister, Cornelius Fudge's murder and Lucius Malfoy's take over as the Minister of Magic, and the day that Dumbledore being dismissed from Hogwarts.

She didn't really know who to blame now, Cornelius Fudge? Maybe, in fact, he did play a part since he was the one who forced Umbridge on the students of Hogwarts, and Umbridge had not allowed Gryffindor Quidditch team to reform, and she banned three students from playing Quidditch ever again after the first Quidditch match of Hogwarts.

One week later, without trace, without knowledge, Harry and Hermione disappeared from Hogwarts, and the Daily Prophet then made Harry out to be crazy.

She hoped that Harry and Hermione were happier outside Hogwarts, as she knew that they had been getting along quite well with each other.

Just then, Dumbledore arrived.

"What can I do for you, Albus?" Minerva asked.

"You have to write a letter to Harry Potter," said Dumbledore. "I have written to him several times without receiving a reply."

"How do I write it, Dumbledore? What should I include in the letter?" Minerva asked, she felt that Dumbledore is trying to get Harry back to Hogwarts again, but how would he dare do that when the Wizarding Britain is in this state?

"Here is what you should write," Dumbledore said.

After Dumbledore told Minerva about what she should write, Minerva nodded, although she didn't have the heart to do it, given the things she had just considered.

She reluctantly took out a quill, and a piece of parchment, and began writing.

/Scene Break/

It was a Saturday on the following morning, and Harry was just having breakfast when Fawkes landed on the table, carrying a letter.

Harry took the letter off it, opened the envelope, and started to read:

_Dear Mr Potter_

_Your disappearance has caused me to become very worried, and you probably have no idea what happened at Hogwarts and the Wizarding Britain. Currently Lucius Malfoy is the Minister of Magic, and Albus Dumbledore has been booted out of Hogwarts not too long ago._

_Dolores Umbridge has now taken Albus's position at Hogwarts, me, Professor Sprout and Professor Filtwick can no longer tolerate such a dreadful headmistriss._

_The Muggleborn students will not be returning to Hogwarts during this September, since there is another Educational Decree formed against Muggleborns._

_We really need you, and if you choose to not come back to Hogwarts, the whole Wizarding world is going to turn into a war zone, possibly, or else, a prejudiced world._

_Regards_

_Professor M. McGonagall_

"What should we do?" asked Harry.

"Write her a letter, tell her that escape is the best option," said Hermione.

Harry nodded.

"Good thinking, Hermione," he said.

"I'll write it," said Hermione, "I will not include you in this letter, since I don't want to expose you to anyone in Britain."

/Scene Break/

Fawkes arrived back to Professor McGonagall's residence on the following day, carrying a reply.

Professor McGonagall took the letter off Fawkes, opened the envelope, took the letter out and start to read.

_Dear Professor McGonagall_

_If the Wizarding world in Britain is dark, the best option is to escape to another country._

_I have escaped Britain because I have a reason for doing it, and I am in another Wizarding school, studying right now._

_Regards_

_Hermione Granger_

Professor McGonagall could not disagree with Hermione's decisions, since she knew that Hermione does not like Umbridge and Snape. She felt that there was a very high possibility that Harry had also escaped along with her.

Before she could do anything else, Dumbledore appeared again.

"Did Harry and Hermione reply back?" he asked.

"Hermione did," Professor McGonagall said, handing him the letter.

Dumbledore dropped the letter onto the ground as soon as he finished reading it.

"Why did they escape this country?" he asked.

"Maybe they want a better school," said Professor McGonagall.

"Is Hogwarts not the best Wizarding school?" asked Dumbledore.

"I am going to make this plain," said Professor McGonagall. "At this moment, I have to say that Hogwarts is one of the worst Wizarding schools ever. The fact that you allowed incompetent teachers to teach in this school has already proven that."

Dumbledore considered for a moment, he had his reasons to allow Snape to teach in Hogwarts, although he had to agree that he didn't think Umbridge was a good candidate of teaching.

"No matter what you say, if Harry is not at Hogwarts, there would be no way for Voldemort to be defeated," said Dumbledore. "Voldemort would reign the Wizarding world."

Professor McGonagall was frustrated.

"Do you mean that Harry had made the wrong choice?" she asked.

"Yes, he had made the wrong choice, regardless of where he is right now, his choice of turning his back on the prophecy just means that he is a coward," said Dumbledore. "He don't even care about his own world anymore, allowing the Wizarding world to turn into a bigoted world is just wrong."

"One does not need to be a hero to be successful," said Professor McGonagall. "Harry already had enough, it is no doubt that he wants to run away."

"There would be no hope for the Wizarding Britain if he is not here," said Dumbledore. "Apparently he did what was easy instead of what was right."

His statement made Professor McGonagall became even angrier.

"Then people can just run away like he did!" she shouted.

"Run away, run away, do you really think you are going to be running away when you are in difficult situations without thinking about hanging back and show perseverance towards them? If this is the case, there may be a possibility for a country to be in a prejudiced state for a long time, or maybe forever!" said Dumbledore angrily, as he was losing patience and control. "If all the countries are in a war, people would have nowhere to go!"

"This is just one of your excuses," retorted Professor McGonagall. "While this may be true, if a situation can be resolved, it will be resolved, if a situation can't be resolved, there is an option to run away and leave them be. Why talk about perseverance when someone has had enough? Are you saying that Harry should have made some reconsideration before he runs away?"

Dumbledore sighed.

"Yes," he said. "This is what I am talking about, Harry is the only one who can defeat Voldemort, and he had chosen to run away instead."

/Scene Break/

The first of September arrived, and there were much less students on Hogwarts Express.

Ron and Lavender were sitting with each other on the train, neither spoken. They did not know what will happen next.

Draco Malfoy and Pansy Parkinson's arrival made them feel worse.

"Looking forward to this year, Weasley?" Draco asked.

Ron didn't answer.

Lavender looked terrified.

Draco Malfoy took a glance at them with a sneer, and walked away.

"This is sickening," Ron said to Lavender. "I have lost my friends, and now Lucius Malfoy is the Minister of Magic. He's a pureblood bigot."

"No wonder some students are missing," said Lavender. "The Muggleborns must have chosen to flee Hogwarts."

"And maybe there will be another Educational Decree saying that Blood Traitors are not permitted to go back to Hogwarts sooner or later," said Ron.

Ginny and Neville were sitting with each other, and they didn't speak either. They were terrified, they had no choice but to face the truth; the Wizarding world in Britain had turned dark.

Like Ron, Ginny also feared that there's going to be an Educational Decree against the Blood Traitors, that she might not be able to attend Hogwarts anymore.

/Scene Break/

"When is your birthday, Hermione?"

Hermione was slightly shocked at Harry's question.

After a few minutes, she regained her composure.

"Nineteenth of September," she said. "Thank you for asking, Harry."

She had never really taken her birthday into consideration since she was studying at Hogwarts, thus she never really mentioned the date of her birthday.

/Scene Break/

Fred and George's plan of setting up a joke shop did not progress well, since Lucius Malfoy was the Minister of Magic, they were afraid that their family was going to be targeted, after all, they were Blood Traitors.

"Maybe we shouldn't have escaped from Hogwarts," said Fred.

"It doesn't make a difference of whether we escape from Hogwarts or not now," said George.

"It is not the best time to start our joke shop," said Fred. "I have a feeling that our families may be targeted."

"Even if we have managed to get our NEWTs to a satisfactory standard," said George, "I don't think it will be likely for us to find a job at the Ministry of Magic while the Wizarding world is in this state."

/Scene Break/

19th September

"Happy Birthday, Hermione," Harry said as soon as she appeared in the common room.

"Thank you Harry," Hermione said, wrapping her arm around him.

There was no mention of Hermione's birthday in any of the classes, although most students did give her greetings about it. But given the fact that she did not really celebrate her birthday since the year she started Hogwarts, she felt this is enough, at least for now.

At dinner time, Hermione received a package from Professor Boady.

She opened it up.

It was a book entitled _Spells in the Way._

She placed the book in her bag, and decided to read it in her leisure time.


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10

**Exams and Holidays**

Disclaimer: Everything in Harry Potter universe belongs to J.K. Rowling. I got nothing out of this except for enjoyment.

Harry and Hermione knew that the exams are not far away from now, thus they put most of their time and effort into studying.

Harry felt that they had made a very good decision to come to Strectoll. They can study without worrying about any bad incidents happening. They knew that it was very impossible for Voldemort to burst in here since Metaphysical Magic was blocking his access to USA.

The other students did not relax either, they spend most of their time either in the library or in their common rooms, and thus the common room is quite crowded. Some people ended up on going into the study rooms (rooms located on the opposite side of the entrance of the common room), so they can give other people a bit more space, and it also ensures them to study without disturbance.

Harry and Hermione have used those rooms quite often, not wanting to be disturbed by anyone else.

"When is our exam going to take place?" Harry asked Hessie.

"Don't worry about that, Harry," replied Hessie. "I only know that it is either at the end of October or at the start of November. Last year it was at the end of October. But an announcement about the exam dates will be made two weeks before it starts. Keep your head down and study."

"And there's really no need to ask any of the teachers about this," said Elijah.

Comforted by his friends, Harry settled down.

/Scene Break/

On the third week of October, the teachers informed the students that the exams are going to take place in early November.

"Any type of cheating materials are banned during exam times," said Professor Brown. "These includes Rememberballs, Self Correcting Ink, Auto Answer Quills, etc. Anti Cheating Spell will be applied to your examination papers. A few students had been trying to get past the anti cheating precautions of the examination authorities in the past, I hope that no one will do such things this time."

"When are we going to get our exam results, Professor?" asked Hermione.

"Numerous fifth year students had asked this question to not only me, but several teachers in the past. To answer your question, your exam results should arrive by no later than the first seven days of December, by owl," said Professor Brown. "If you do not receive your exam results after the first seven days of December, you can send us an owl, and we will sort it out."

From this time onwards, the teachers no longer set them any homework, this had given the students more time to do their revision.

/Scene Break/

The Order of the Phoenix, meanwhile, began to scatter, since none of them had the courage to face the darkness that had arrived in Britain. The Order members who were working in the Ministry of Magic were having a very difficult time.

Amelia Bones, meanwhile, had no desire for her niece Susan to return to Hogwarts, due to the current state of the Wizarding Britain. She asked Susan to withdraw from Hogwarts, and consider other options. She was confident that Susan could go to another school to continue her magical education since she had passed all her OWLs with the expected grades.

Susan had no objections to her suggestion, in fact, she was feeling sick about the state of the Wizarding Britain too, and there's no point staying in Britain when it is in this state.

/Scene Break/

The exam week started in Strectoll, and Harry and Hermione were very confident about it, neither of them were frustrated with any of the theory or the practical exams.

"I think I did all right in the exams," said Harry. "I don't think you will fail anything, either."

"We will have to find out when our results arrives," Hermione said.

Harry and Hermione had a wonderful time as soon as the examinations are over, they chatted with their friends, talking about holidays. A few students suggested to go and meet Harry and Hermione during the holidays.

"We would have a better Christmas with you lot around us," Hermione said.

"I can't wait for Christmas," said Elijah.

"I'll see if I can come," said Lynn. "I'll have to inquire my parents to see if they have any plans for Christmas."

The last day of Strectoll arrived, Harry and Hermione were both looking forward to the coming holiday. Harry no longer feel worried about holiday any longer as he did in Hogwarts, except for his Ordinary Wizarding Levels.

All the students cheered at the end of year feast, some students have made Harry and Hermione to promise to write to them over the holidays.

/Scene Break/

Hogwarts, meanwhile, was quite disordered. A number of students started to leave, and they began to flee from Britain, since they could no longer put up with the state that Hogwarts is in and the darkness of the Wizarding Britain. They had no idea when Hogwarts and the Wizarding Britain is going to go back to normal.

Hagrid was forced to go into hiding, and Professor Grubbly Plank took over the post of Care of Magical Creatures teacher.

Ron was forced to repeat his fifth year due to his unacceptable standards of achievement, and he knew that he would be stressed again. His place of being a prefect was substituted by someone else.

/Scene Break/

As Harry, Hermione, and their friends sat on Strectoll Express, they laughed and cheered.

"My parents were asking me if I have any plans for Christmas," said Lynn. "They said that they didn't have any plans for Christmas this year."

"Tell them to come and spend Christmas with us," said Hermione. "Tell us if they want to come."

"Yeah," said Lynn. "This is going to be my first time spending Christmas with you two if we are going to come. Perhaps I can ask Hessie and Owen to come to your house."

"Ask us what?"

Lynn looked around, and he saw Hessie and Owen standing not far from them.

"Are you saying that you want us to spend Christmas with Harry?" Hessie asked.

Lynn felt slightly embarrassed, and then he nodded.

"My parents didn't have any plans for Christmas anyway," Hessie said.

"What about me?" said a voice.

Hessie and Owen turned around, and saw Elijah.

"Sorry Elijah," said Hessie apologetically.

"You can come too, Elijah," said Harry.

"I will need to make an enquiry with my parents about this," Hermione said.

As soon as they got off Strectoll Express, and ran through the barrier of Platform Six and Half, Hermione's parents were waiting for them.

"We just bought a new house a fortnight after you two have gone to school," Emma said.

"And you both will see it soon," added Dan.

As soon as they arrived at the new house, Harry and Hermione were amazed. It was made of white walls, navy blue chimney, and there was also a white double garage door on the right side, whereas the front door was brown.

Dan took out a key and opened the door, and then he entered, along with Harry, Hermione and Emma.

They had bought furnitures, and everything else they need.

"We have managed to buy a dental clinic that was on sale," said Dan. "It's not very far from here."

There was a short silence, and Harry and Hermione were enthrailed by the look of the inside of the house, everything was perfectly in order.

"How was your year, dears?" Emma asked.

"Wonderful," said Hermione.

"Never better," said Harry.

They began to explore the house, it had one living room, one dining room, three bedrooms and one kitchen.

"This house looks nice," Harry commented.

"Just as I have mentioned earlier, it took us a fortnight to find this house and purchasing it, we moved here a few days after we bought it," said Dan. "And it took us another month to acquire all the necessary furnitures and stuff."

"How much did this house cost?" asked Hermione.

"Over one million," said Dan.

/Scene Break/

Harry and Hermione received their exam results in early December.

Harry was pleased that he got Outstanding in all of his subjects, including Defense Against the Dark Arts, except for History of Magic, which he only managed to get Exceeds Expectations.

Hermione, on the other hand, got Outstanding on all her subjects except for Defense Against the Dark Arts, which is Exceeds Expectations.

"We are tied in," Harry said.

"I know," said Hermione.

They sat down for a while.

"I love you, Hermione," said Harry. "Will you marry me?"

"I will marry no one but you, Harry," Hermione responded almost instantly.

She leaned closer to Harry, and kissed him.

"I love you too," she said.

Harry considered what happened in the past, he considered his crush on Cho Chang. Since he had left Britain, it naturally meant that he had already broken up with her, though silently.

He realised that Cho may have been wondering where he was right now, and she may have cried since she realised that he was no longer in Hogwarts. He half wished he had write her a letter before he left Britain, telling her that he could not be with her again, possibly forever, but he knew that he had to keep quiet about his escape from the Wizarding Britain, or else if words leaked out that he had escaped with Hermione, some people (at least the people from the Order of the Phoenix) would most likely be looking for him, particularly Dumbledore, additionally, it may cause Cho to think that he and Hermione were dating, he didn't want to let slip this secret either.

He could not imagine what had really happened to Cho right now, based on what he had heard of what happened to Britain.

Nevertheless, these things no longer matters, and Hermione had accepted his purposal, he couldn't be any happier.

He knew that Dumbledore may have been keeping a lot of things from him, but he was glad that he escaped from Britain, and he won't need to hear what Dumbledore want to tell him.

/Scene Break/

Meanwhile, at Hogwarts, Ron was struggling with his work again.

"You better put some effort into your work, Mr Weasley," said Professor McGonagall sternly but firmly. "I hate to see you repeating another year."

This did not encourage Ron to put his effort into studying.

Snape was as unpleasant as ever, Ron's potions grade did not improve from his previous year at Hogwarts.

"I reckon you are considering repeating your fifth year again, Mr Weasley," Snape said with a delightful voice after Potions one day, after he had seen how terrible Ron's potions had been.

Ron didn't want to complain, since it was true that he had failed his exams, and had to repeat, plus that he did not make any progress to hopefully pass it this year.

The Defense Against the Dark Arts lesson, meanwhile, had turned into a different angle, only that it was no longer defense that the students are learning, instead, they were learning the Dark Arts. Lucius Malfoy had asked Umbridge to teach Hogwarts students Dark Arts so they could join Voldemort. Those who refused to practice Dark Arts were given severe punishment, being severely beaten, or else being severely tortured.

No one in the Wizarding world had prepared to stand up against Lucius Malfoy, they were terrified that Voldemort would finish them off if they did.

As a result, the Darkness of Wizarding Britain was starting to get profound.

/Scene Break/

A few days before Christmas, Dan and Emma put up the Christmas tree, and Harry and Hermione helped decorate it.

"I am curious what has happened to Britain," said Dan.

"Britain is probably no longer safe," said Harry. "I am certain that Voldemort is already in control of the Wizarding world, and if he attempted to fight the Muggle world, I guess that there will be a war. I am not too confident that Muggles can beat Wizards."

"Depends," said Hermione. "If the Muggles are fast enough, they may be able to kill a Wizard before they finish their spells. We can't say that Wizards are always better than Muggles, and we can't say that Muggles are always better than Wizards either."

/Scene Break/

On Christmas morning, Harry got up, and went down to the Christmas tree, and he saw Hermione there as well.

He took the presents that had his name.

"Shall we open it?" he asked.

"You can," said Hermione.

Harry opened it.

It was a watch.

The watch had a gold face, and a golden strap.

"Like it?" asked Hermione.

"Yeah," said Harry. "My old watch is no longer working."

He took off his old watch, adjusted the time of his new watch, and put it on his wrist.

He felt excited, his friends from Strectoll was going to come here for Christmas, this would make it his day.

Dan and Emma, meanwhile, were busy cooking breakfast.

After breakfast, they were looking forward to the arrival of Harry and Hermione's friends, and their parents.

"This is going to be a wonderful day," said Dan.

"Yes, it is wonderful, it will be a lot of fun as our guests arrives here," agreed Emma.

Time seems to be going very fast, at around four in the afternoon, there was a knock on the door.

Dan went and opened it.

"Hello Harry, hello Hermione."

Hessie, Owen, Eiljah and Lynn had arrived with their parents.

"Come in everyone," said Dan.

The guests entered, and then Dan closed the door.

"It seems that you two have made some friends in your new school," Dan commented.

Harry and Hermione nodded.

Hessie, Owen, Elijah and Lynn began to explore the house.

"I have never imagined that Hessie would meet Harry and Hermione this year," Hessie's father commented. "They are just too nice."

"I never imagined that there are going to be transferring students from UK," Elijah's mother said.

"There has not been a lot of students transferred to Strectoll during the past few years," Lynn's father said. "Harry, Hermione, do you both have a reason to transfer to Strectoll?"

Harry told Lynn's father about what he had gone through in Hogwarts, and Lynn's father said.

"I don't think that school is the best. A decent school should make students feel that they are welcome, and there must be no biased teachers. I don't know why Dumbledore wants to tolerate biased teachers to teach at Hogwarts. I don't suppose that you can put up with them anymore."

Harry and Hermione both nodded.

After the Christmas dinner, Harry and Hermione walked together, Hermione had an arm around Harry's waist.

Elijah and Lynn saw them, and they realised something.

"Harry, Hermione, what's going on with you two?" Elijah asked.

Hermione hesitated, then she realised what Elijah was talking about, and she decided to tell him.

"We are engaged," she said.

Then she showed them her engagement ring, which Harry had bought a few days ago.

"Wow!" Elijah and Lynn said together.

"We didn't really realise that you two were in a relationship," said Lynn.

"Nor did I," said Elijah. "Can we attend your wedding, Harry?"

"Sure," Harry responded, he glanced at Hermione, who nodded without hesitation. "I will notify you when the time comes."

The guests departed at nine o'clock.


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11

**The Scarpers**

Disclaimer: Everything in Harry Potter universe belongs to J.K. Rowling. I got nothing out of this except for enjoyment.

On the following January, in Strectoll Express, Harry saw Susan, Ernie, and Justin.

"It is a surprise to see you, Harry," Susan said.

"What are you three doing here?" Harry asked.

"You don't know about this Harry," said Susan. "The Muggleborns were purged from Hogwarts, and now Hogwarts is really dark, so we have decided to flee from there."

"What do you mean?" asked Harry.

"I am afraid that this is going to be very hard to describe," said Ernie. "There had been a new Educational Decree planted in Hogwarts, stating that Muggleborns are not allowed to go back to Hogwarts in September."

"Dumbledore wouldn't tolerate that, would he?" asked Harry.

"I did complain to him, but he said that he can't do anything about it," said Ernie.

"What about the Ministry, did they believe Voldemort's return?" asked Harry.

"Lucius Malfoy is the Minister of Magic right now," said Justin bitterly.

"There had been a rumour in the Daily Prophet saying that you have killed Fudge, Harry," Susan said. "I don't believe a single word about this."

"Maybe they don't want to report Voldemort's return," said Harry.

"So the Death Eaters have taken over the Ministry?" asked Hermione.

Susan nodded.

"And my aunt couldn't tolerate that, so she decided to send me to another school," she said.

"Just leave them alone," Harry said. "Welcome to Strectoll, Susan."

"Thanks Harry," said Susan.

There was a moment of silence, and then another question occurred to Harry.

"What about the others?" he asked, hoping that no Muggleborns are in prison.

"Colin Creevey and Dennis Creevey had decided to return to the Muggle world, Dean, Parvati and Padma went to Beauxbatons," said Susan. "Neville Longbottom and the Weasleys are still at Hogwarts, though."

Harry knew that there's no need to ask any more questions about Britain, since he knew that the answer will be horrible, and as a matter of fact, he didn't really care about how less populated Hogwarts would be right now.

Just then, another question occurred to him.

"Do you have any idea what Dumbledore is doing right now?" he asked.

"I don't know," said Susan. "I have no idea what he is planning to do right now."

"You don't know about Dumbledore," said Harry. "He wanted to raise me as a pig for slaughter."

"What!" shouted Susan.

"That bastard!" Justin shouted.

Hermione nodded.

"The Weasleys were also in his pocket," she said.

"What team are you in, Susan?" asked Harry.

"Team 3," Susan replied.

"Me and Ernie are in Team 2," said Justin.

"We are still in the same common room, though," said Ernie.

As soon as Harry, Hermione, Ernie, Susan and Justin got off from Strectoll Express, they were led into the hallway, and Ernie, Susan and Justin were lead into the Welcome Room, while Harry and Hermione went outside.

At half past five, Harry and Hermione went straight into the hall, past Professor Boady, who was giving instructions to the new students.

They waited for five minutes, and the new first years arrived, waiting to be placed into teams.

Harry had never seen team placement ceremony in this school before, now he had the chance, so he watched Professor Boady giving the first year students their team badges, and the students going to their team tables.

After the team placement ceremony, the Deputy Headmaster said something to the Headmaster.

The Headmaster nodded.

And then the Deputy Headmaster left the hall, and returned about a minute later, followed by Daphne, Tracey, Ernie, Justin and Susan.

"Ladies and gentlemen, I would like to introduce you five new students, from Hogwarts in Britain, Tracey Davis, Daphne Greengrass, Ernie MacMillan, Justin-Finch-Fletchley, and Susan Bones," he said.

After a while, Tracey and Daphne sat down beside Hermione, while Susan sat down next to Harry.

"Let the feast begin," said Professor Albany.

Harry was slightly dumbfounded, since he had never really met Tracey and Daphne while he was in Hogwarts.

"How come I never seen you two at Hogwarts?" Hermione asked.

"Probably because we were in Slytherin," Tracey answered simply.

"And why did you come here?" asked Hermione.

"Do you know what state Hogwarts is in right now?" asked Tracey.

"Very dark," said Hermione.

"I couldn't put up with this," said Daphne, "nor could Tracey. Too much prejudices, and the Wizarding Britain is very dark too."

"It is such a pitiful thing that you two were in Slytherin," Hermione said.

"Not quite," said Daphne. "We only came here because Hogwarts is very dark, beyond our expectations. We never really want to be dark, like the Malfoys. Besides, I don't think anyone who's not in Slytherin would tolerate this."

She stuffed a piece of chicken nugget into her mouth.

"If Snape is not the Head of Slytherin, there would be much less problems between the Slytherins and other houses," said Tracey.

"Maybe," Harry said.

A few hours later, Professor Albany got to his feet, and announced that it is time for the students to go to bed.

Harry and the others made their way to their common room, and they introduced some new friends to Tracey and Daphne.

Then they bid each other goodnight, and went to bed.

/Scene Break/

On the following day, Harry and Hermione went down to the hall for breakfast, Harry was eating at top speed, as he couldn't wait to go to class.

After breakfast, every sixth years were being sorted into their classes based on their OWLs. Harry and Hermione were immediately cleared to continue their subjects, whereas Daphne, Tracey, Susan, Justin and Ernie were taking a bit longer time to sort out, since they had just arrived.

"Miss Bones," said Professor Boady. "You may continue with all your subjects that has at least the grade 'Exceeds Expectations' in your OWL results. That includes Transfiguration, Charms, Defense Against the Dark Arts, Herbology and Potions."

Then Professor Boady moved on to Justin and Ernie, after a moment, they were cleared to do the same subjects as Susan.

Daphne Greengrass took a bit longer to sort out.

"According to your OWL results, Miss Greengrass," he said. "You may continue with Potions, Herbology, Charms and Transfiguration. You have not been able to achieve a satisfactory results in Defense Against the Dark Arts, so I can't let you continue this subject here."

Daphne nodded.

She decided to not tell Professor Boady about Umbridge, since this would not be any use to let her continue Defense Against the Dark Arts.

A moment later, Tracey was cleared to do the same subjects as Daphne.

/Scene Break/

As the first week of Strectoll ended, and Susan, Ernie and Justin were cheering.

"This school is much better than Hogwarts," Susan commented.

"That's right," agreed Justin. "No prejudices and biased staff members."

"I am glad that there are staff policies in this school," said Susan. "Hogwarts never had staff policies."

"The teachers are rather helpful, too," said Ernie.

Harry and Hermione found that it was much easier to get along with Susan, Ernie and Justin than the time that they were in Hogwarts.

"Can you tell me what happened to the DA?" asked Harry.

"We were practicing by ourselves in the Room of Requirement, with Dean leading us, and we have to go to the library to search for spells to practice," said Susan.

Harry pondered at Susan's statement, and he wondered if anyone suspected what she and the rest of the DA were up to.

"Has the DA been discovered?" he asked.

"Yes," said Susan, "and this was the reason that Dumbledore had been booted out of Hogwarts."

"Well, the name was brilliant," said Hermione. "At least none of you had been expelled."

"Let me remind you that it was Ginny who have suggested it," said Harry.

"I know," said Hermione.

/Scene Break/

One Saturday, Harry saw Amelia Bones arriving at Strectoll.

"Never know that you are going to end up here, Potter," she said after she and Harry greeted each other. "I assume that you have no idea about what's going on in Britain."

"Britain is pretty dark," said Harry. "Muggleborns were forced to depart Hogwarts."

"Yes," said Amelia. "I want to ask you, by the way, are you escaping from Britain just to give the Ministry a lesson to remind them that if they don't listen to your warning, they will have to take the consequences later?"

"Not really, it was because I had enough," responded Harry.

He didn't want to tell Amelia about what his parents had told him, since he didn't want to reveal the fact of the existence of Metaphysical Magic.

"He has been manipulated," Hermione added.

"I see," said Amelia. "So, Potter, you think that escaping a country is the same thing as escaping manipulations?"

"Yes, as long as the manipulator is away from the person who has been manipulated," said Harry. "I want to be free from manipulations."

Before Amelia could say another word, Fawkes arrived again, and dropped a letter in his hand.

Harry opened the envelope, took out the letter, and started to read:

_Dear Harry_

_If you don't come back to Britain, the Wizarding world of Britain will most likely be turned into a Death Eater's resting place. Right now some Hogwarts students have fled from Britain, as time goes on, there will be more students fleeing Britain, as a result Britain may be losing Wizarding population, and filled with all sorts of Dark wizards, at least until Voldemort is defeated._

_Please reconsider getting back to Britain, get rid of Voldemort, and everything will be back to normal._

_I don't want the Wizarding world to turn into a Death Eater's resting place._

_Regards_

_Albus Dumbledore._

"Not that again!" Harry said in a loud voice.

"What's the matter, Harry?" asked Amelia.

"Read this," Harry said, handing the letter to her.

After Amelia read it, she threw the letter onto the table, her expression became disgruntled. Harry stared at her, realising that she's most likely going to scream in anger.

"Dumbledore doesn't know what hit him, does he?" she said angrily, and Harry knew that he was right. "Why did Dumbledore expect you to go back to Britain when it is full of darkness? Not only that he didn't do anything about the Death Eaters, if he is the only one that Voldemort feared, why didn't he go and deal with Voldemort himself? Did he want you to go back because he think that only you can defeat Voldemort?"

Harry pondered Amelia's questions in his head for a minute.

"Why would he want me to do something that he is not capable of? If he is capable of doing something, he should do it himself. If he is not capable of doing something, I would not be capable of doing it either. I escaped Voldemort by luck, not by skill," he said, nodding.

"Don't reply to him, then," said Amelia. "If you continue to disregard his letter, he will feel bored."

Harry nodded.


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12

**Location and Intrusion**

Disclaimer: Everything in Harry Potter universe belongs to J.K. Rowling. I got nothing out of this except for enjoyment.

Dumbledore waited for a few days, expecting to receive a reply from Harry.

He didn't understand why Harry had not replied to the letter he sent him, and now he started to panic.

He decided to send a letter to Snape for a meeting.

Beside this plan, he also decided to create a tracking device so he can track Harry down.

/Scene Break/

"You called me Dumbledore?" asked Snape.

"I did," said Dumbledore.

He sighed.

"The whole Wizarding world is in such a big mess, first, Harry Potter is nowhere to be seen, and then I saw him and Hermione's name disappear from the Hogwarts enrolment list."

"Don't start that again in front of me!" Snape shouted. "I know you are trying to use me to look for Harry Potter!"

"Unless if you want this country to turn into a Death Eaters' resting place, there's no way that I will give up," Dumbledore said. "I have just made a tracking device to track Harry down."

Then Dumbledore activated it.

He glanced at the device, there is Harry.

And he saw the name, Hermione Granger, beside Harry's name.

"I think I know where he is right now," he said. "Let's go and find him."

As soon as he and Snape apparated to the location, they were unfortunately being knocked back about one thousand feet.

Dumbledore examined his tracking device again.

"Yes, he is there," Dumbledore said, pointing at Harry's name on the tracker.

He tried to apparate with Snape again, only that they were being knocked back the second time.

"I think we have some resistance, Severus," said Dumbledore. "There may be anti-apparition jinx placed in the location where Harry is."

"Make a portkey, then, Dumbledore," said Snape.

"Not until I get the enchantments off," said Dumbledore.

"It may not be legal to do this," said Snape.

"Very well," Dumbledore said. "I'll make a portkey."

He pulled out a piece of paper from his pocket, tapped it with his wand and murmured _'Portus'._

Then he and Snape grabbed it.

But then they found themselves being blasted back, landing on the same spot as before.

"What is this?" asked Dumbledore.

"It seems to me that there must be enchantments that protects against portkeys," said Snape.

Having no choice, they apparated back to Dumbledore's home.

Dumbledore sat down on the bed.

_How come my portkey didn't work? _He thought. _I shall have to find out what is preventing me from getting to the location that Harry is in._

"There are wards that can prevent portkey travels," said Snape.

Dumbledore looked confused.

"Yes, I know that you are quite genius, Dumbledore, but there may be magic that we would never imagine around the world," Snape said. "There may be Wizards who are more powerful than you, maybe not in Britain, but in other countries."

"I believe that Voldemort is the most powerful Wizard," said Dumbledore.

"Not exactly, there may be Wizards in other countries that are more powerful than the Dark Lord," said Snape.

Dumbledore was about to retort, but he fell silent.

"Are you sure about this, or are you just suspecting?" he asked.

"I am just suspecting," said Snape.

/Scene Break/

Remus was not happy, not happy at all. He had just finished reading a copy of Muggle newspaper given by Arthur Weasley, and it mentioned numerous disappearances in the Muggle world, plus numerous destructions of residences, and they are currently under investigation.

He suspects that it was most likely the Death Eaters' activity.

He placed the copy of newspaper down, and sighed. It was no joke, after all, that Muggles had been attacked and killed. The Wizarding world is already in a state of darkness, and now the Muggle world is also no doubt a target of the Death Eaters.

He was surprised to see Dumbledore appear.

"How can I help you, Albus?" he asked.

"I know where Harry is right now," said Dumbledore. "The only difficulty is to get to the location that Harry is currently in. It seems that there are enchantments in that location that resist even portkey transportations."

Then he showed Remus his tracking device.

"You want me to go and find Harry?" asked Remus.

Dumbledore nodded.

"Take this, bring him back here as soon as you can if you find him," he said.

/Scene Break/

Meanwhile, Harry and Hermione was studying together in their common room.

They were looking over the texts for their next lesson.

"I think I memorised it," said Harry.

Hermione was feeling a bit tired, too.

"Let's have some break, Harry," she said. "We don't need to worry about it yet."

/Scene Break/

Remus, meanwhile, had already made his way into Strectoll.

He dashed through the hall, trying to get to Harry Potter as soon as possible.

As soon as he turned into a corridor, a voice shouted.

"Oi, stop now!"

Professor Boady was standing a few feet away in front of Remus, pointing his wand at him.

"Follow me to the Headmaster's office right now!" he said.

"I want to..." Remus began, but Professor Boady cut him off.

"I don't want to hear explanations right now," he said firmly.

They arrived at Professor Albany's office.

"What is your name?" asked Professor Albany.

"Remus Lupin," said Remus.

"Hand whatever you got in your hand over now," said Professor Albany firmly.

"It is a tracker," Remus said, handing it over. "Sorry about that."

"Do you know the rules for outsiders of this school?" asked Professor Albany, taking the tracker and putting it on his desk. "Do you know that any outsiders who sneak into this school without letting a staff member know first is against the school rule?"

"I must have dozed off for a moment," said Remus, shaking. "I lost track of things."

"Answer the question," said Professor Boady.

"I was not aware of the rules of this school," said Remus.

"And what is your purpose here, Remus?" asked Professor Albany, now sounding slightly softer, pointing his wand at him.

"I have been ordered to find Harry Potter," said Remus.

"Who's orders are you on?" asked Professor Albany.

"Albus Dumbledore," said Remus Lupin at once. "Former Headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry."

"Why would he order you to do that?" asked Professor Albany. "Harry Potter had been enrolled into this school, along with Hermione Granger. Why don't Dumbledore just mind his own business?"

Remus was shocked, he had no idea how Harry got to Strectoll without being discovered by anyone in Britain. He had no idea that there was a power which no Wizards would acknowledge, which was Metaphysical Magic, that could prevent other people from discovering the people who escaped Britain, and enrol into another school.

"You don't understand," he said. "The Wizarding world in Britain is in the control of a Dark Wizard known as Voldemort, and his supporters. Right now, I suspect that the Muggle world in Britain is under attack by the Death Eaters, too."

"What does that have to do with Harry Potter?" asked Professor Albany.

"Dumbledore needed him," said Remus.

"And you think that Voldemort will be defeated by Harry, by a mere teenager?" asked Professor Albany. "Why don't Dumbledore go and defeat Voldemort? Why would he need Harry to do it?"

Remus bowed his head down.

"I'll let you have this back," said Professor Albany, handing the tracking device back to Remus. "Go back and tell Albus that if he can't defeat Voldemort, Harry can't do it either."

Remus nodded and left.

/Scene Break/

Albus Dumbledore was sipping his tea, waiting for Remus to return.

About five minutes later, Remus appeared.

"Did you manage to get to Harry?" he asked.

"Someone intercepted me," said Remus, sitting down. "They told me that you should mind your own business."

Then he explained what happened when he tried to find Harry in Strectoll.

Albus sighed.

He had to locate Harry Potter this time.

He decided to try again getting to the location where Harry is.

He knew that if Remus could get to Strectoll, he should also be able to get there himself.

/Scene Break/

On the following morning, Professor Boady held Harry back after breakfast.

"Potter," he said. "I just want you to know that yesterday, a guy called Remus Lupin sneaked in here, and he said that he want you."

"Why would he want me?" asked Harry.

"He told us that Dumbledore needs you," said Professor Boady. "I told him to go back to Dumbledore, informing him that he should mind his own business."

"Do you have anything else to discuss with me?" asked Harry.

"Not really, I only want to inform you what had happened yesterday," replied Professor Boady.

Harry told Hermione about what Professor Boady had told him during break time, Hermione was both astounded and relieved.

"It appears that Dumbledore didn't give up on finding you, Harry," she said. "Good to see that Professor Boady stopped Lupin from getting you."

"Yeah," agreed Harry, he suspected that Dumbledore must have ordered Lupin to find him so he could use him to get rid of Voldemort. "Even I am not capable of getting rid of Voldemort, why would Dumbledore want me to do it?"

Hermione understood what Harry was talking about.

"We will leave them be, after all, Harry, it is not your fault that Britain had gone dark," she said determinedly. "Even if Voldemort reigns Britain forever, we are not going to go back."

Harry nodded.

/Scene Break/

A few days later, Albus Dumbledore appeared in the hall of Strectoll.

He walked through it, and then he went to locate the office.

And then, Professor Albany arrived.

"What do you want?" he asked.

"I need to get Harry Potter," said Dumbledore at once. "I need him to save the Wizarding world in Britain."

"My name is Professor Gail Albany, and you must be Albus Dumbledore," said Professor Albany. "You should mind your own business, and not to interfere with other people who had been enrolled into this school."

"What do you mean?" asked Dumbledore.

"Harry has been enrolled into this school," replied Professor Albany. "He is doing pretty well in his school work."

Dumbledore was shocked, just like Remus, he had no idea how Harry had managed to get out of Hogwarts and enrol himself into Strectoll without anyone's knowledge in Britain. Regardless of how well Harry is doing with his school work, he could not allow Harry to remain outside his control like this any longer, since Harry need to die.

"I know, but the Wizarding Britain is very dark right now," he said.

"And what does this have to do with us?" asked Professor Albany.

"Not your business, but it is Harry's business to get rid of Voldemort," replied Dumbledore.

"Why don't you deal with it?" asked Professor Albany.

"I am not capable of dealing with the mess in the Wizarding Britain," replied Dumbledore.

"I am going to make this plain, if you are not capable of dealing with something, don't expect Harry to be capable of dealing with it either," said Professor Albany. "You are so old, and Harry is so young. If Harry can deal with something, you should be able to deal with it too."

Dumbledore was surprised that Professor Albany came up with this statement, he didn't want to reveal the prophecy to Professor Albany, he then decided a way to get around it. After all, only Harry was capable of getting rid of Voldemort.

"Without him, there will be no hope for the Wizarding world in Britain," Dumbledore said.

"No hope, no hope, I don't understand what you mean. I repeat, if you can't deal with something, don't expect Harry to deal with it either," said Professor Albany. "Do you expect a single person to fight against a bunch of terrorists?"

Dumbledore shook his head.

"Is there not enough Wizards in Britain to fight against Voldemort?" asked Professor Albany.

"Voldemort can only be defeated by Harry," Dumbledore said.

Professor Albany was shocked that Dumbledore was so insistant, so he decided to get around it.

"How old is Voldemort?" he asked.

"He's already in his seventies, I bet," replied Dumbledore two minutes later.

"Well, how would you expect a teenager who is only sixteen to defeat someone who is already in their seventies?" asked Professor Albany.

Dumbledore was getting very troubled now, Professor Albany just didn't understand.

He sighed, and walked out of the hall.

His plan of snatching Harry had failed.

A/N:

Next chapter will be a time jump, several things will be mentioned, and the wedding preparation scene will be included.


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter 13

**The Wedding**

Disclaimer: Everything in Harry Potter universe belongs to J.K. Rowling. I got nothing out of this except for enjoyment.

17th February 1999

Harry and Hermione had graduated from Strectoll, they had passed their NEWTs with flying colours.

Additionally, they had passed their Apparition Test.

It is now time to think about getting married.

"Are you nervous about getting married, Hermione?" asked Emma.

"A bit nervous," said Hermione, standing in front of the mirror, brushing her hair.

Harry glanced at her, and he couldn't describe how beautiful she is.

"We will find a place for you two to hold the wedding," said Dan.

"Maybe magical place would be better," said Hermione.

Dan laughed.

"Then it would be best for you to deal with it on your own," he said.

"I don't think either non magical or magical matters," said Harry. "But, if we want to be married in a magical location, we will need some enquiries from the Wizarding families."

"We can enquire our friends from Strectoll," said Hermione.

"Right, we will write to them and ask them," said Harry.

/Scene Break/

Five days later, there was a knock on the door.

Dan went and opened it.

It was Elijah and his parents.

"Come in," he said.

Elijah and his parents walked in.

"We are here to help you to find a place for your wedding ceremony," Elijah's father said. "I was married in a private place, registered by the Wizarding government called Fredis Hotel."

"It's still there," said Elijah's mother. "We will need to sidealong Apparate you two, though, at least at first, because you don't know where it is."

"We will have a look now," Hermione said. "What do you think, Harry?"

"I have no objection to this," Harry replied.

Elijah's parents sidealonged Harry and Hermione to the Fredis Hotel.

"What do you think?" asked Elijah's father.

"Wonderful," said Hermione.

A few minutes later, they apparated back to their residence.

"I was just thinking of getting you two a house," Dan said to Harry.

"If you have enough money for it," said Harry.

/Scene Break/

1st March 1999

Hermione and Harry had prepared everything they need for their wedding, and today is the day that their wedding ceremony is going to take place, at four o'clock in the afternoon. Susan Bones had volunteered to be their bridesmaid.

"The time will come very soon, love," said Harry.

He couldn't be any happier than he was today, marrying a former friend who never left his side.

He had told Viktor Krum once before that Hermione was never his girlfriend, well, now things had turned out to be different. He imagined that if Viktor Krum turned up in his house right now, and saw what had really happened to him, there would surely be a surprise.

Hermione laughed as soon as he told her about this.

"Who do you reckon I would end up with if it was not you?" she asked.

"Dunno," said Harry. "Thanks to my parents for their suggestion to let you come with me."

Hessie, Owen, Lynn and Elijah, plus Professor Boady and Professor Albany, had been invited to attend their wedding.

"I really liked the way you did to your hair during the Yull Ball," said Harry.

"Really? Only that I am not going to be doing it this way today," Hermione said.

/Scene Break/

Harry and Hermione apparated to Fredis Hotel fifteen minutes before four o'clock.

About two minutes later, Amelia and Susan arrived.

"Hello Susan," Hermione said.

"Hello Hermione," said Susan. "Congratulations, you two!"

"Thanks," said Harry.

Another five minutes later, Hessie, Owen, Elijah and Lynn arrived.

"Harry, Hermione, congratulations," Hessie said.

"Thanks Hessie," said Hermione.

At four o'clock, everyone had arrived, and Ministry Justice Trenton Jennings stood in the front of the hotel.

"Today, we have a wedding ceremony here, these two, Harry James Potter, and Hermione Jean Granger are getting married."

"Harry, you may start your vow," he said.

"Hermione, I love you with all my heart and soul. You are everything I could hope to find in a woman. You are loving, thoughtful, caring, smart, and beautiful in my eyes. Your love always makes me feel like the happiest and luckiest man alive. I am proud to have you as my life's partner and promise I will always be at your side. I give you this ring as a symbol of my love for you. Let it be a reminder that I am always by your side and that I will always be a faithful partner to you."

Then he slipped the ring onto Hermione's finger.

"Hermione, now it is your turn."

"Today I marry my best friend, the one I will live with, dream with, and love. I, Hermione Granger, take you to be my husband. From this day forward I will cherish you, looking with joy down the path of our tomorrows knowing we will walk it together side by side, hand in hand and heart to heart. I give this ring as my gift to you. Wear it and think of me and know that I love you."

Then she slipped the ring onto Harry's finger.

"I now pronounce you husband and wife, Harry, you may kiss your bride."

Harry leaned towards Hermione and kissed her.

/Scene Break/

"How long are you two going to be away for your honeymoon?" Emma asked, after Harry and Hermione apparated back to their home.

"Two weeks," said Harry at once.

"Are you sure, Harry? Honeymoon will only happen once in your life, don't you want it to be a bit longer?"

"Three weeks maybe?" said Harry.

"Three weeks are no problem for me," said Hermione.

"We will set off soon," said Harry.

As soon as he and Hermione slept, James and Lily appeared again.

"We have to congratulate you Harry," Lily said. "I know that you will be happy now, with Hermione."

"We will be setting off to our honeymoon soon," said Harry.

"Wherever you go, we will watch over you, making sure that you are safe," said Lily.

Then they disappeared.

/Scene Break/

4th March 1999 – Week 1

Harry and Hermione appeared in Key West, and they began their journey.

They spent about one hour in the Key West Butterfly and Nature Conservatory. They giggled, as hundreds of butterflies reluctantly flied around them.

"Maybe they flied around us because they think you are attractive, Hermione," Harry joked.

Hermione knew that Harry is joking, and she laughed.

"Perhaps we should use magic to scatter them," she whispered, putting her hand into her pocket, as if she is going to take out her wand.

Harry frowned.

"Just joking," Hermione said, taking her hand out from her pocket.

They took a few photos of the certain scenes in the conservatory.

Then they visited the Butterfly Gallery.

"Wow!" Harry said.

"Looks nice," said Hermione.

"Quite colourful," said Harry.

They got out of the Butterfly Gallery half an hour later.

Harry checked his watch.

"It's five minutes to twelve o'clock now," he said.

After they had their meals in a restaurant, they settled down in the hotel that they had booked earlier.

/Scene Break/

6th March 1999

At ten o'clock in the morning, Harry and Hermione appeared in Audubon House and Tropical Gardens.

They entered the grounds of the Audubon house, paid their admission, and set off.

They headed to the front porch of the house, and they saw someone.

"Welcome to Audubon House," he said. "My name is Larry Sanders, I shall be your guide if you want to explore this house."

"That's right, we are on our honeymoon right now, and we would like to explore it," Harry said.

"I shall first give you an introduction of this house," he said. "What's your name, by the way?"

"My name is Harry Potter, and this is my wife, Hermione," Harry replied.

"You two must have been married not long ago," said Larry.

He paused.

"Audubon House was built in 1846, by Captain Geiger, a master wrecker and Key West's first harbour pilot."

"A smaller house that previously stood on the property had been destroyed by a hurricane. Captain Geiger used his ship's carpenters and the best available materials to build a bigger, stronger house that would withstand the test of time."

"He and his wife lived in the house with their seven daughters and two sons. Ten slaves also lived on the property, which comprised about 10 acres at the time."

"The Geiger family lived in the house for 110 years. The last of Geiger's descendents to live there was Edward Buford Smith, who died in 1956 after living in the house for 10 years without electricity or plumbing."

"After Smith's death, the city of Key West took the house to collect back taxes. In 1958, the house was slated for demolition to make way for a gas station to be erected on the site. However, the Mitchell Wolfson Family Foundation, a non-profit educational organization, stepped in to save it. This was the start of Key West's restoration movement."

"Today, the home is open to the public daily for individual and group tours. It also is available for weddings, corporate, and other special events. The adjacent Audubon House Gallery offers original antique Audubon prints as well as limited edition modern prints, other artwork, nautical maps and charts, and gift items."

"Any questions?" asked Larry.

Harry and Hermione looked at each other.

"Where did the name of this house come from?" asked Hermione.

"Although many believed that John James Audubon, a famed ornithologist and naturalist once lived at the house that now bears his name, he never even stepped foot in it. While Audubon spent time in Key West in 1832, the house wasn't built for another 14 years after his departure. The name comes from the role the property played in Audubon's most famous work. Birds of America."

"Audubon was born to French parents in what is now Haiti in 1775. He came to the United States in 1803 to avoid being drafted into Napoleon's army and was sent to manage his family's estate in Pennsylvania. There, he became enthralled with nature. He started drawing birds as a hobby and, in 1820, embarked on an ambitious project to find and paint all species of birds in North America."

"Audubon's quest led him to a six-week stay in Key West in the spring of 1832 to document the birds of the Florida Keys. There he met the town physician. Dr. Benjamin Strobel, an amateur naturalist. While visiting Dr. Strobel's home, Audubon admired the tropical gardens on the neighbouring property owned by Captain John Geiger, where Audubon House now stands."

"With Dr. Strobel's help. Audubon procured cuttings from the garden's plants to use as background for his work. One plant was the rough-leave Cordia tree, which Audubon used in his drawing of the white-crowned pigeon. He gave the tree the common name 'Geiger tree' after the property's owner."

"Any more questions?" Larry asked.

Harry and Hermione both shook their heads.

"If you have no more questions, you may explore the house," Larry said.

Harry and Hermione got up, and left.

They went from room to room, and discovered the prints of Audubon.

"It seems confusing that Audubon never even set foot in this house," said Harry.

"It does sound confusing," Hermione agreed.

/Scene Break/

8th March 1999

Harry and Hermione apparated to Key West Cemetery, and as they entered, they saw numerous graves.

"What do you think?" asked Harry.

"It seems sad, looking at the graves here," Hermione replied. "But there are some interesting things here as well."

"The status seemed to be lovely," said Harry.

"It is," said Hermione.

They departed after one hour.

/Scene Break/

12th March 1999 – Week 2

Harry and Hermione arrived in Charleston, and started their journey.

They first settled down at a hotel that they had booked earlier.

"Let's go and visit Old City Market today, shall we?" Hermione asked.

"Okay," said Harry.

They apparated to the Old City Market, and entered the Great Hall.

It was an enjoyable experience, they visited various shops, but they didn't feel like buying anything, at least not at the moment.

"Maybe we should buy some Stone Ground Grits, since they are very rare," said Hermione, after they entered the Openair Sheds.

"Not too much, or else our money are going to be used up," said Harry.

After they bought the grits, they visited some other places, but they decided to save the rest of the money for later.

They had their lunch at Brasserie Gigi, they both picked Grilled Fish Sandwiches, and Soup De Poisson.

They arrived back to their Hotel in the afternoon.

14th March 1999

Harry and Hermione decided to visit the Sullivan's Island today.

They apparated to the Island, and they were in front of the Sullivan's Island Lighthouse.

They looked around.

"Looks amazing," said Harry.

They saw the beach on the Sullivan's Island, it was beautiful.

Hermione took out her camera, and took a few pictures.

"This looks lovely, doesn't it?" she asked.

Harry nodded.

They sat there a few hours, and they departed the Lighthouse.

Then they visited the Fort Sumter National Monument, walked for a few hours on the Historical walking areas.

Hermione was holding Harry as they walked together.

"Do you feel happy?" Hermione asked.

"I feel happy because you are here with me," Harry replied.

Hermione smiled.

"I love you, Harry," she said.

"I love you too, Hermione," Harry whispered.

15th March 1999

Harry and Hermione appeared in the Magnolia Plantation and Gardens, paid the admission fee, and began to explore the gardens.

They made their way to Audubon Swamp Garden, paid the additional fee, and entered.

They felt the fresh air around them, while they are looking around.

"Wow!" Harry said.

This garden was bigger than the tropical garden that they had visited over a week ago.

"This sounds like a good place, doesn't it?" asked Hermione.

"There's even trees growing from the water," Harry commented.

Hermione laughed for a moment.

"Imagine our house is near this place, we can explore this garden more often, perhaps," she said.

At ten minutes to ten o'clock, they arrived at the Slavery to Freedom.

"Don't you think this is getting a bit too pricey right now, Harry?" asked Hermione.

"Let's limit the visits, then," replied Harry. "After this, we will go back to our hotel."

He felt that this is not worth it, even though they still have a decent amount of money to spend.

They decided to have a tour in the Plantation House.

As soon as they arrived at the front of the porch of the house, it was only five minutes left until the tour starts.

They paid their admission fee, and waited.

As soon as the tour started, they learnt about the history of Drayton family, and their fate.

Harry sighed.

"Interesting," he said.

"It is," said Hermione.

16th March 1999

Harry and Hermione decided to visit the Nathaniel House today.

"That's great," Harry said as soon as they arrived.

They entered the house, and began to wander around.

The garden in front of the house was beautiful.

They stepped onto a staircase, which turned out to be the spiral staircase.

They found that this is not too interesting, as the guide were repeating himself, and correcting himself quite often.

As soon as Harry and Hermione got out of the house, they were slightly disappointed.

"We will be going to another location next week, Harry," Hermione said.

/Scene Break/

19th March 1999 – Week 3

This is Harry and Hermione's final week of honeymoon, on this day, they decided to visit the D. L. Bliss State Park.

As soon as they arrived at the park, they were lost for a slight moment at the scenery of it.

They began hiking the Rubicon Trail for a little while.

"Do you want to continue to walk?" Harry asked Hermione.

Hermione nodded.

And so they hiked the Lighthouse Trail for a bit.

Then they were a bit tired, so they sat down, and rested a little.

At twelve o'clock, they arrived back to their hotel.

21st March 1999

"Let's go and visit the Kings Beach Recreation Area," said Harry.

"Right," said Hermione.

They apparated to the Kings Beach Recreation Area.

They sat on the beach for a moment, and they took a few photos.

"Pity we didn't meet our friends, or else this day may be more interesting," said Harry.

"I agree," said Hermione.

23rd March 1999

Harry and Hermione decided to visit the Emerald Bay State Park, so in the morning, they prepared themselves, and apparated to their destination, and then they began walking.

"Wish we can do something interesting here," whispered Harry.

As they continued to walk, they saw the Vikingsholm.

"Let's go in and have a tour," said Harry.

Hermione nodded.

They paid the money, and entered the Vikingsholm.

They walked out about half an hour later.

"Well, that's not too bad," Harry said. "At least it is worth paying that fee."

Then they apparated back to their hotel.

/Scene Break/

26th March 1999

Harry and Hermione packed their things, and apparated back to their home.

"How was your honeymoon, dear?" Emma asked.

"Fun," said Harry.

Then he and Hermione showed the pictures they had taken during their honeymoon, to Dan and Emma.

Emma smiled.

"We have bought you two a house," said Dan.

"Really?" said Harry. "Thanks a lot."

"We can go and have a look now, if you want to," said Dan.

Harry and Hermione nodded.

Dan drove Harry and Hermione to their new house, and they got off the car, and entered in.

It had three bedrooms, one living room, one dining room, and one kitchen, plus a bathroom, except most rooms were deserted.

Harry and Hermione began to wonder around.

"This house looks good," Harry commented. "But nothing is in here."

"You don't have to live here right now," said Dan. "You need to buy the necessary furnitures, and everything else you need. You can live with us until this house has the necessary furnitures."

"Thanks Dad," said Hermione.

/Scene Break/

On the following morning, Harry and Hermione woke up.

It was a wonderful feeling to him, waking up with Hermione, his true and loyal best friend, and now his wife, he couldn't imagine how he would live any other way.

Now he knew that taking Hermione with him was the right choice, not only because of her outer beauty, but her inner beauty as well.

The wonderful moment of feeling caused him to forget almost everything else for a while.

A/N: this chapter took quite a bit of time to write, and even then I cannot say that it is the best, although I do hope that readers find this chapter interesting.

While Harry and Hermione are having their honeymoon, a lot had happened in Britain.

The next chapter will go back to the time on the day that Harry and Hermione left for their honeymoon, explaining the things that had happened in the Wizarding Britain.


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter 14

A/N: According to my comment in the last chapter, many of you are probably wondering what's happening in Britain, well, at this time, things in Britain are not going to play nice. Just as the comment in the last chapter mentioned, this chapter will be going back to the date that Harry and Hermione left for their honeymoon, mentioning about what's happening in Britain.

**Struggle and Freedom**

Disclaimer: Everything in Harry Potter universe belongs to J.K. Rowling. I got nothing out of this except for enjoyment.

The Wizarding world in Britain was still struggling, and Hogwarts was as dark as ever, as Umbridge was now teaching the students Dark Arts instead of Defense Against the Dark Arts.

Dumbledore was completely frustrated that he didn't manage to get Harry back into his control.

He had to find Harry Potter.

It had been several years since Harry Potter had left, and Dumbledore had no idea what had really happened to him. Some Wizards had fled Britain.

The members of the Order of the Phoenix were still in Britain, but they were too frightened to fight, some of them, including Sirius, went into hiding.

The students in Hogwarts could not tolerate the fact that they were now being taught Dark Arts instead of Defense Against the Dark Arts. Even worse, they were asked to use the Cruciatus Curse on anyone who had earned detentions, whoever refuse to do it would receive severe punishment.

This caused some students to hide in the Room of Requirement for several weeks, including Neville Longbottom, and they had taken extra precaution so no Death Eater supporters could get in.

Umbridge and Snape had used Cruciatus Curse on several students, and they were taking away points and giving detentions for meaningless things. No students were brave enough to stand up to either of them, as they feared they will face worse punishments if they did.

The professors at Hogwarts could never tolerate this, but they were too scared to say anything, the only thing they could do was to tell the people they trust.

The Weasleys were not happy at all. Charlie Weasley had decided to not go back to Britain until it could function properly again.

Ron was in total disgrace, he had failed his OWLs again, and the second time he repeated his fifth year, he got only Acceptable grades, though he didn't fail.

Ginny didn't fare better, she had failed her OWLs once, and the second time, she only managed to get barely Acceptable grades.

Percy was relieved that he had reconciled with his parents, since he was very stressed at the Ministry.

"When will this war end?" Arthur asked Molly.

"I have no idea, Arthur," said Molly. "How long do you think you can tolerate Lucius Malfoy being the Minister of Magic?"

Arthur shuddered at the statement.

"I can't tolerate it any longer, to be honest," he said, shaking his head. "But there's nothing I can do. I don't want our family to turn into You-Know-Who's target."

"It seems difficult to keep yourself out of trouble these days," said Molly.

/Scene Break/

Like Hogwarts, Hogsmeade was also not safe, nor was the Hogs Head.

There were numerous attacks in Hogsmeade, and some people ended up getting killed, or else being kissed by the Dementors.

Aberforth Dumbledore, who lived in Hog's Head, was not a happy person, after he had heard the attacks in Hogsmeade and the Hogs Head, he began to shout at Albus, saying that Albus should have been doing something about it.

He knew that there's no way for the Wizarding Britain to go back to normal until Voldemort has been defeated, but he was glad about the fact that at least some students had escaped.

He started to consider whether he should escape or not.

Surely he will be safe if he escape to another country, since the Death Eaters were not really after him.

"There's a war going on right now, Albus," Aberforth said.

"I know," Albus said. "It is apparent that Harry is not here to clean up this mess."

Aberforth raised an eyebrow.

"Why do you expect him to clean up this mess?" he asked.

"Only Voldemort needs to be defeated," replied Albus.

"What about the Death Eaters?" asked Aberforth.

"After Voldemort is defeated, the Death Eaters will no longer be evil," replied Albus. "They deserve a second chance."

"I don't believe you, Albus," said Aberforth. "Why would you expect Harry Potter to defeat Voldemort?"

"Only Harry can defeat Voldemort," said Dumbledore.

Aberforth was annoyed at Albus's statement.

"How would you expect a young adult to defeat a Wizard like Voldemort?" he asked.

"There was a prophecy made before Harry was born," said Albus.

"And you believe that this prophecy is real?" asked Aberforth.

Dumbledore nodded.

"Did he receive any training from you to defeat Voldemort?" asked Aberforth.

Dumbledore shook his head.

"Then don't expect Harry to defeat him," said Aberforth. "Voldemort is too powerful to be defeated."

"Harry has the power to defeat him," said Dumbledore. "But instead, he ran away from here a few years ago, which was a foolish move."

"What power?" asked Aberforth curiously, he was surprised that Harry had power without training.

"Love," said Dumbledore simply.

"What are you saying? Walking up to Voldemort and kiss him?" asked Aberforth. "I don't think by kissing anyone would kill them or weaken their power."

Dumbledore shook his head, then he turned and left.

Aberforth felt disgusted about Albus's beliefs that the Death Eaters could be 'redeemed'. He stood up, and paced around the room.

He knew Albus too well, and it was very difficult for him to understand Albus.

He knew that even if Voldemort had been defeated, the Death Eaters would still be a threat to the Wizarding world, unless if they get captured.

The darkness of the Wizarding world had caused him to tremble.

/Scene Break/

Albus Dumbledore had no idea why Harry never answered his letters, and his every attempt at finding Harry had failed. A few people even rebuked him, saying that he shouldn't expect Harry to defeat Voldemort.

And right now, he felt that it would be no longer safe to contact Snape, or else the Death Eaters and Voldemort will suspect what side he was really on.

None of his plans of getting Harry back to his control had succeeded. He assumed that Harry had chosen to ignore all his letters, that Harry had trashed them.

He trembled at the possibility that Harry may have gotten together with Hermione Granger, since she's too smart, and she would, in any case, get Harry out of his control if Harry is too close to her.

As a result, he had no idea what Harry had been learning since he disappeared from Hogwarts.

There must be a way to end this war.

/Scene Break/

Meanwhile, Voldemort had decided to launch some more attacks in the Muggle world.

As soon as his followers heard his plans, they were elated. They decided to squash their ideas in.

"Maybe we can take some money and exchange it to galleons," said Lucius.

"That may not be such a good idea, money is used to buy things, they are not edible," said Voldemort.

"How about stealing foods?" asked Macneir.

Voldemort nodded.

"Brilliant," he said. "You can kill Muggles for fun, this time you will go by yourself, and next time I shall come with you."

The Death Eaters nodded, and they set off.

They entered a shop, and began to take things away, just before they were about to leave, they were being stopped by the guard.

"May I check inside your bag?" he asked.

Nott fired a silent stunning spell at him, and he fell down, unconscious.

A few people outside had seen the scene, they felt weird, so they contacted the policemen.

Soon, the policemen arrived, and asked them to put their hands in the air. However, not only they didn't, they took out their wands.

"Hand whatever you got over to us, now!" one policeman said. "You have five seconds, five, four, three..."

"_Avada Kedavra!_" Thorfinn Rowle shouted, pointing his wand at the policeman, and a jet of green light erupted out of his wand, streaking at the policeman.

The policeman fell down, dead.

One of the other policeman moved closer to Selwyn, and grabbed the tip of his wand, but Selwyn muttered a stunning spell, causing the police to fall down.

"Avada -"

SNAP!

Rowle's wand was snapped in half before he could finish the Killing Curse.

Then a few policemen took out their stunguns, and stunned a few Death Eaters.

"_Bombarda Maxima!_" Peter Pettigrew shouted.

As soon as he finished the spell, a jet of light streaked out of his wand, at the policemen, and the policemen felt that they were blown up, and before they could react, they died.

The rest of the policemen decided to escape for the moment, until they get more reinforcements.

The customers and the shopkeepers were all terrified, they quickly abandoned the shop and ran away as fast as they could.

"What should we do now?" asked Lucius.

"Just leave," said Macneir.

"We need to clean up a bit, we don't want other people to see this place in this state, do we?" asked Avery.

Macneir and Lucius both nodded.

After five minutes, more policemen arrived, and they took out their stun guns, and stunned all of the Death Eaters, and they took them away into the prison.

/Scene Break/

As soon as the Death Eaters woke up, they found themselves inside an empty cell.

Then a horde of policemen arrived, and took them into the interrogation room.

Each Death Eaters were being interrogated, and they were found guilty of robbery and attacking policemen, and they were given the appropriate sentences.

Then they were locked up in individual cells.

The Muggle prison that Peter Pettigrew stayed in had a few robust and strong criminals, and fights happened quite often between them, and the policemen were not able to stop them.

A few days later, the policemen found that the criminal they had recently caught had disappeared.

/Scene Break/

"What happened to you guys?" asked Voldemort as he saw them apparating back, they were sighing breathlessly.

"We have robbed some things, but we got caught by the policemen, and we were being given sentence," said Macneir.

"Which police station?" asked Voldemort.

He felt hatred, and he want to avenge his followers.

Macneir shook his head.

"I remembered," said Pettigrew. "It is called Billingham Police Station."

Voldemort smiled.

"We will go and destroy that Police Station," he said. "We will kill or obliviate the policemen. After all, they are just a bunch of Muggles."

The Death Eaters laughed.

"We are going to act as soon as you guys have acquired your wands," Voldemort said. "Filthy Muggles, wanting to arrest Wizards, this will be the last thing they do."

/Scene Break/

They apparated to Billingham Police Station, and they entered, and killed the policemen one by one, before the policemen had time to defend themselves.

Bang!

One of the policemen shot Selwyn on the head with his pistol, and Selwyn fell down.

Mulcibur Jr. pulled out his wand, and tried to kill the policeman who just killed Selwyn, and then the policeman shot him on the chest twice before he could perform a spell.

He fell down.

"_Bombarda Maxima!_" Peter shouted again.

A jet of light streaked out of his wand, and some of the policemen were hit with this spell, they fell down.

The rest of the policemen leapt on the Death Eaters, trying to pin them down.

"_Stupefy!_" one of the Death Eaters shouted at the policeman who tried to fight with Peter Pettigrew, and the policeman fell down, unconscious.

"_Expelliarmus!_" another Death Eater shouted, pointing his wand at one of the policeman who had just managed to get out his stungun.

The stun-gun flew out of the hand of the policeman, and the Death Eater caught it.

"_Patrificus Totalus!_" he shouted, pointing his wand at the policeman, who's arms snapped, and fell down.

There were only two policemen left. They looked at each other, and they began to run.

Peter Pettigrew got up to his feet, and sent a stunning spell at one of the policeman who was running away, but he missed.

Then they obliviated the policemen who was unconscious, and then they went from cell to cell, and killed all the prisoners.

"Good move, my followers," Voldemort said.

Then he magically sealed the doors and windows.

"Let's blow up everything in this building, shall we?" he said.

The Death Eaters nodded.

After they had blown up everything in the police station, they unsealed the doors, and disapparated.

/Scene Break/

The policemen arrived back five minutes after the possessions inside the station had been blown up.

"What is this?" asked one of the policeman.

"I don't know," said another policeman.

"I'll go and check elsewhere," another policeman said.

And then he made his way to the cells.

As soon as he arrived at the location where the cells are, he found the doors were blasted into pieces, and the beds inside were shattered into bits, and all the criminals were dead.

"This place is like a pig sty!" he roared.

He raced back, and saw two of his companions approaching him, they both looked stunned.

"This is incredible!" one of them said.

"We better do something about the mess," said the other, "and we need to do something about the dead criminals."

/Scene Break/

A few days later, Dumbledore glanced at the latest Muggle newspaper, and he sighed as soon as he saw the incident happened in the Billingham Police Station.

Just then, Minerva entered.

"What's wrong, Albus?" she asked.

"There was an attack in the Billingham Police Station two days ago," Dumbledore said.

"It could have been an activity of Voldemort and the Death Eaters," said Minerva.

Dumbledore shuddered at the statement.

"That means Voldemort must have chosen to attack Muggle locations now," he said.

/Scene Break/

In spite of the incident that had happened in the Billingham Police Station, Voldemort and his Death Eaters had murdered several Muggles a few days later, and destroyed their homes.

/Scene Break/

Within one month, Harry and Hermione had bought all their furnitures, and everything else they need. They moved to their own house, and they were quite satisfied with it.

Occasionally, their friends visited them, Susan, Ernie and Justin had visited them two days after they bought all their furnitures.

"This house looks nice," Susan commented.

"It sure does," agreed Harry.

"This house must have been quite expensive," Ernie said.

"Yes, it is," said Harry quietly.

He and Hermione poured some tea for Susan, Ernie and Justin, and offered them some fruits, and sweets.

"I am curious about what has happened to Britain," said Ernie.

Harry and Hermione gasped at Ernie's comment, truthfully, they hadn't been considering much about what happened to Britain eversince they got married.

"Dunno, but I guess that the Wizarding Britain is still at war," Harry said.

"I wonder if You-Know-Who has been defeated yet," said Justin.

Harry and Hermione both shook their heads, they had absolutely no idea what state the Wizarding Britain is in right now.

They looked at each other for a while.

"None of us really wanted to go back to Britain," said Susan. "Ever since You-Know-Who has reigned the Wizarding Britain, I don't think anyone can do anything about it. If he had started to attack the Muggle world, I really don't know what is going to happen to them."

"I don't know if anyone is courageous enough to stand up to him," said Hermione.

"Maybe some of them will end up on joining him instead of resisting him," said Harry.

"Maybe," said Hermione, "if they have no other choice."

"But we are safe and free here, aren't we?" asked Susan.

"Yes we are," said Harry.

There was a short silence.

"How was your honeymoon?" asked Susan, changing the subject.

"Wonderful," said Harry, then he and Hermione showed them some photos they had taken during their honeymoon.

"Looks good," said Justin.

A few hours later, Susan, Ernie and Justin left, saying that they are going to come back again another time.

/Scene Break/

During the Easter holiday, Hessie, Owen, Elijah and Lynn arrived to see them.

"Happy Easter," Owen said, putting a bag of Easter eggs on the table.

"Thanks," said Harry. "Take a seat."

And then he walked off.

As soon as Hessie, Owen, Elijah and Lynn took their seats, Hermione asked:

"So how's everything going?"

"Quite stressful, honestly, this is our NEWT year," said Hessie.

"Are you having trouble with your school work?" asked Hermione.

"At some point, yes," replied Hessie. "Owen has been helping me a lot, he didn't have as much trouble as me in his school work."

There was a short silence.

"Has anyone in Hogwarts ever had trouble with their school work?" asked Elijah.

"Ronald Weasley," said Hermione at once, "he had trouble with his school work, both classwork and homework. I had to help him."

"Can he manage his work without your help?" asked Lynn.

Hermione frowned, and then shook her head.

"He probably had failed his OWLs," she said.

Hessie and Owen were surprised.

"Did he cheat his way to fifth year?" asked Elijah.

"Well, if I had not pushed him, he would probably fail, and repeat," said Hermione. "He's quite lazy, to be honest. I had to write conclusions for him in his homework essays, and such."

"Hermione, what do you think you were doing?" asked Owen. "How would you dare helping someone this way?"

Hermione's face turned red.

"Well, at some point, I did ask the question about refusing to lent him my notes, and he said he would fail his OWLs if I didn't lent him my notes," she said.

"I would be surprised if he had managed to pass his OWLs," said Lynn. "Besides, why would you want to be friend with Ronald?"

"Yeah, I think you got a point, fortunately he didn't come to Strectoll, or else he is probably going to nag me to help him again," Hermione said.

Just then, Harry arrived back with cups, and some tea bags, plus some candies.

"What were you guys talking about?" he asked.

"Just something to do with school work," said Hermione, then she recounted the story of what she discussed with Hessie, Owen, Elijah and Lynn.

"Besides," said Elijah, "I think you are pretty smart, Hermione."

"That's right," said Harry.

"You were just as smart as me in Strectoll, Harry," said Hermione.

Elijah, however, had a question.

"What if Ronald was transferred here?" he asked.

"Just as I have said, unless if his study habits changed, he would probably ask me to do his homework for him again," said Hermione.

A few hours later, Hessie, Owen, Elijah and Lynn decided to leave.

"We will meet again later, Harry, Hermione," said Elijah.

"See you," said Hermione.

A/N: The next chapter will be the final chapter, the Wizarding world in Britain will be back to normal.


	15. Chapter 15

Chapter 15

**The Battle for Conquest**

Disclaimer: Everything in Harry Potter universe belongs to J.K. Rowling. I got nothing out of this except for enjoyment.

Voldemort was very active, he had already endangered the Wizarding Britain, and his existence had proven a continuous threat to the Wizarding World. A decent amount of lives were lost to him, there were disappearances of Muggles almost every fortnights, and no one in the Muggle society had any idea of who to blame. Even the Muggle government started to struggle.

**About One Year Later**

A horde of Wizards, along with some Muggle armed forces, gathered in the street of Britain.

They were the newly formed ICW, trying to hold up Voldemort and his followers, members including Viktor Krum, Fleur Delacour, Remus Lupin, Nympedora Tonks, and others, including Wizards from other countries, such as Australia, Germany, Russia and France, had gathered together.

"Where do you think he would be tonight?" asked Remus.

"I don't know," said Alastor.

"I think we should guard the Hog's Head," Remus said.

"I'd rather guard Hogsmeade," said Tonks.

Sirius couldn't resist.

"I'll guard Hogsmeade as well," he said.

/Scene Break/

No one had spoken to one another that night, they were waiting for the Death Eaters to arrive, so they can fight them off.

Remus and Alastor saw a swarm of Dementors arrived.

They both fired a Patronus Charm each, causing the Dementors to retreat.

The Muggle armed forces, meanwhile, were in Hogsmeade. A few of them had switched their torches on.

A few minutes later, the Death Eaters arrived, and they took down a few lives with the Killing Curse.

Before they could take more lives, some of them fell to the ground.

As the rest of the Death Eaters saw their companions falling down, they started to search for the source.

Tonks and Sirius pulled out their wand, and they both fired a Blasting Curse each.

A few Death Eaters got hit by it, and they collapsed.

Arthur and Bill, meanwhile, were searching for other Death Eaters.

Bellatrix Lestrange appeared, and started to confront them, but she fell down before she could finish her spell.

There was a gaping hole in her chest.

A few minutes later, Amycus, Alecto and Fenrir arrived, just as they were gasping at the sight of Bellatrix's dead body, Bill shot a silent Stunning Spell at Fenrir.

Fenrir fell down as the spell hit him.

Before Amycus and Alecto had a chance to see what happened to Fenrir, Bill and Arthur both shot a Flame Cutting Curse at them, slicing them in half.

/Scene Break/

Meanwhile, in Hog's Head, Remus and Alastor were duelling with Antonin Dolohov and Peter Pettigrew.

Remus fired an Expulso Curse at Peter, and it hit him in the chest.

The effect of the spell blew Peter's chest open, and Peter fell to the ground. Blood gushed out of his wound.

Antonin Dolohov then fired a Reductor Curse at Remus, and Remus dodged it before it hit him.

Then Alastor fired an Expulso Curse at Antonin, who leapt out of the way.

Just then, Walden Macnair arrived, and he got hit by an Expulso Curse at his neck.

After another few minutes, Thorfinn Rowle arrived, along with Travers.

Just as they raised their wands, they fell down, at the same time, Antonin fell down too.

Remus and Alastor took a peek at them, and found that there was a hole in their heads.

"How much more do we need to take down?" he asked.

Alastor shook his head.

Then he saw a jet of green light streaking towards him, he quickly leapt aside, and the green light sailed past him from his side.

Then they heard gunfire around the village, they did not know what was going on, but they didn't dare go and look, in case if they get shot.

Then Voldemort appeared.

Before he could raise his wand, he fell down to the ground.

Remus and Alastor examined his body, and they found a hole in his forehead.

Then two people appeared, it was Colin and Dennis Creevey, they took out their pistols, and shot Voldemort five times in his heart, they then located Voldemort's wand, and snapped it in half.

A few more Death Eaters arrived, and as they saw Voldemort's dead body, they were horrified, and wanted to escape, but they were taken down one by one before they could disapparate.

Afterwards, Viktor Krum and Fleur Delacour arrived, both panting.

"Finally, the Death Eaters were taken down," Viktor said breathlessly.

"How many did you two take down?" asked Remus.

"A few," Viktor replied. "You can come and look at them if you want."

Remus followed Viktor and Fleur, and as he scanned the Death Eaters, he saw the body of Severus Snape, and Draco Malfoy, both had blood on their robes.

"Finally, Snape is gone," Remus said.

/Scene Break/

A few weeks later, Amos Diggory had been chosen as the Minister of Magic.

He was excited about Voldemort's death, he celebrated with the other Ministry employees for several days.

The Ministry of Magic was ultimately back to the control of the light side, although Dumbledore didn't quite like how the war ended. Harry wasn't involved in killing Voldemort, and the death of numerous Death Eaters was a terrible loss in his eyes, they died before they could be redeemed. Nevertheless, he knew that it may be no use to talk to the new Minister about this, and he doesn't want to stir up an argument, so he kept it quiet. He didn't feel good after he heard that Severus Snape was killed while he took part in the Death Eaters' activities, but he could do nothing to bring Severus back to life.

Sirius Black was confirmed innocent by the new Minister, after he was being interrogated under Veritaserum.

Umbridge was soon arrested for a life sentence in Azkaban for supporting the Death Eaters.

Fred and George finally could do what they wanted, to start a joke shop, and so they did.

Since Ron had failed his OWLs and could not step up to NEWT level, he could not get any jobs. Fortunately Fred and George offered him a job in their joke shop, since they had very few requirements to employ someone, and they pitied him.

Still, Ron ended up single because no one would want him, no girls wanted to marry him.

He wished that Harry and Hermione would somehow appear again, but as a matter of fact, they didn't, even worse, he became an outcast to the Wizarding public, every time a Wizard sees him, they shunned him, and even his classmates from Hogwarts avoided him as much as they could.

Ginny married Michael Corner after she had graduated from Hogwarts.

Molly and Arthur were dismayed that Harry and Hermione had gone without a trace. Like Ron, they hoped that Harry and Hermione would suddenly appear. They often dreamed about Harry and Hermione appearing to them, but none of their dreams came true.

Dumbledore had not been reinstated as the Headmaster of Hogwarts, instead, Professor McGonagall took over this position, since Dumbledore said that he was too old to continue it. He had also decided to leave his other former positions since there are other people who would be more suitable for it.

Sirius, on the other hand, had immigrated to USA to meet Harry and Hermione, after his name was cleared. He searched for them, and fortunately he found them.

"Sirius!" Harry roared happily.

He and Hermione just got back from their workplace not long ago, and Sirius's sudden appearance shocked them. He was standing not far away from their house, and he greeted them.

"I miss you both," Sirius said. "Care to explain how you two got here?"

After Harry and Hermione told Sirius about their decisions, Sirius sighed.

"Well," he said, after a moment of silence, "I am happy to see you two together now."

"The Wizarding Britain must have been in a war," said Harry.

"That's right," agreed Sirius. "I am cleared now, by the way."

And then he explained how the new Minister was able to prove his innocence by giving him Veritaserum.

"That's good news," said Hermione.

Then Sirius told Harry and Hermione about what had really happened to Britain ever since they left, including what the Daily Prophet had said about Harry.

"Whatever the Daily Prophet said about me, the Ministry had already took the consequences of their own deeds," Harry said. "This only gives Voldemort more chances to endanger the Wizarding Britain."

"Right now Britain is finally at peace," Sirius said, nodding.

Then he told Harry and Hermione about the arrival of the International Confederation of Wizards, and their actions towards Voldemort and the Death Eaters.

"I know there was a very big probability for Voldemort to take over the Ministry," said Harry, after Sirius had finished speaking. "With the Minister of Magic being ignorent about his return, it gives him the perfect opportunity to do so."

"That's why some people fled Britain," said Hermione, "especially the Muggleborns, since they were being persecuted."

Sirius nodded again.

"And how did the Weasleys react about us leaving?" asked Hermione.

"They were concerned, of course, and Dumbledore had been looking for Harry for a long time," Sirius said.

"Why does he have to look for me?" asked Harry. "Didn't he know that I had enough?"

Sirius nodded.

"I am very sure that he is aware of it," he said. "According to what Remus told me, Dumbledore needs you."

"He's only manipulating me," said Harry. "I already know that the reason that he needs me is for getting rid of Voldemort, but I have chosen to not do it. He had sent me a number of letters, but I just ignored them, as he has been ignoring me during my fifth year at Hogwarts."

Sirius nodded again.

"Yes, your parents told me that," he said. "I am not surprised that you want to escape while the Wizarding Britain is in this state, when Voldemort is active, and the Ministry's refusal to believe his return, plus you being tortured by Umbridge, and being banned from Quidditch, etc. I would never have expected someone like you to put up with all these things. I am not surprised when your parents told me that you had fled to USA after I had been cleared."

/Scene Break/

Harry and Hermione lived happily in the house that Hermione's parents have bought for them, their friends often arrived at their house to see them. Sirius stayed with them since he didn't want to be lonely. Harry and Hermione took this chance, and told Sirius about the school they had gone to, and the qualifications they had received.

Sirius nodded, and he smiled.

"Good to see that you have been educated rather than being manipulated, Harry," he said. "Good to see that you enjoyed your new Wizarding school, and I am happy to hear that you have got very good results in your NEWTs. I dunno what Dumbledore will think if he hears about your achievement, though. But I am sure that some of the people in the Weasleys family would go nuts if they hear about this."

"What do you mean by 'some of the people in the Weasleys family would go nuts if they hear about this'?" asked Hermione.

Sirius told them about Ron and Ginny's failures, and they were not surprised to hear what Ron is doing right now. Neither Ron nor Ginny mattered to either of them.

"Figured, Ron's lucky to be able to work with Fred and George in their joke shop," said Hermione. "I assume that he hasn't found a spouse yet."

"Of course he hasn't," said Sirius. "I would be surprised if he is able to find one in the future."

"What are you doing right now, by the way?" he asked.

"I am now the Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement in the Ministry of Magic of USA," Harry replied.

"And I am the Senior Undersecretary to the Minister," Hermione said.

Sirius grinned.

"I know you two will succeed," he said. "James and Lily also told me that they have now lifted the enchantments that they had set up in here, as you two no longer need anymore protection since the war in the Wizarding Britain had ended."

Harry and Hermione grinned at Sirius.

"Well, at least Dumbledore's plan had been disrupted," Harry said.

He felt pleased with his achievements, and his positions, all was well.


End file.
